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Charlotte Tilbury makeup brand creates F1 Academy team 

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Charlotte Tilbury makeup brand creates F1 Academy team 

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in my opinion one of the cleverest moves, there is a significant lack of support for F1 Academy (essentially the womens version of Formula 4) from teams in current F1 therefore it was in need of other investment.

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F1 ACADEMY has today announced a landmark partnership with Charlotte Tilbury that sees the brand become an Official Partner of F1 ACADEMY in 2024.
The globally renowned beauty empire will become the first female-founded beauty brand to partner with F1 ACADEMY, and also enter into their first ever global sports sponsorship.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about the 2024 F1 ACADEMY season
Charlotte Tilbury is a global beauty brand with a mission to help everyone, everywhere feel and look their most confident self through the power of skincare and make-up.

The partnership is founded on a closely shared purpose to empower, inspire confidence, and encourage young women to chase their dreams. As an Official Partner, Charlotte Tilbury will use its global platform to showcase F1 ACADEMY's current drivers, shining a light on their incredible achievements and showing their audience all the opportunities available to women in motorsport - both on and off track.

Susie Wolff MBE, Managing Director of F1 ACADEMY, said: "At F1 ACADEMY we want young women and girls to feel confident to chase their dreams, no matter the odds. We are on a mission to transform access to our sport, celebrate trailblazing female pioneers in our industry, and inspire a new generation of young women to pursue a career in motorsport."

"It's a huge privilege to be partnering with Charlotte Tilbury, a brand whose values align so closely to our own. I want to thank Charlotte for believing in our mission and enabling us to reach a new audience of young women to showcase the opportunities available to them in our sport. Our message to them is simple: dare to dream."
READ MORE: F1 ACADEMY drivers to get super licence points and wild card entries introduced for 2024 season
Charlotte Tilbury, MBE, President, Chairman, CCO, and Founder of Charlotte Tilbury, said: "Empowering everyone, everywhere to unlock the magic of confidence has always been my passion and purpose - a value shared by Susie Wolff and F1 ACADEMY.

"My brand was created for everyone, everywhere, and as a female-founder I'm thrilled that we're the first ever beauty brand to support these powerhouse drivers through our partnership with the F1 ACADEMY. We are standing proudly behind the incredible young women making waves in the fast-paced world of Formula 1.

"Motorsport has a huge female following, and the drivers of F1 ACADEMY are already increasing representation and diversity in the sport. With this partnership, we will use our global platform to elevate this new generation of fearless young female drivers and open up the traditionally male-dominated world of motorsport to even more talented young women.

"This partnership celebrates the strength, determination, and the undeniable power of female excellence. It's all about the winning and "Dare to Dream it" mindset!

"I always say you can makeup your destiny - which is why we made it the empowering mantra of this partnership - it's even emblazoned on our F1 ACADEMY race car! Get ready to race towards your dreams, darlings, and makeup your destiny!"
READ MORE: Red Bull recruit 2024 F1 ACADEMY trio Hamda Al Qubaisi, Amna Al Qubaisi and Emely de Heus

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F1 ACADEMY announces partnership with Charlotte Tilbury

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F1 ACADEMY has today announced a landmark partnership with Charlotte Tilbury that sees the brand become an Official Partner of F1 ACADEMY in 2024.

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a really interesting 5 part documentary on Beth meads and Vivienne

Miedema All injuries

discusses how football boots affect there increase

mental health

lack of strength and conditioning from a young age compared to

mens game where academy's get them from as young as 9 where as women as

old as 18

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Step by Step: An Arsenal Original Documentary Series

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Step by Step, our latest Arsenal Original Documentary Series, follows Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema's recoveries from their respective knee injuries.

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Arsenal player Lotte Wubben Moy created the blog that is such and interesting insight into women foot ball and her relationship with football from a young girl

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Kim Little is to my left and Vivianne Miedema to my right. Two of the best players in the world. Print outs of set pieces are blu tacked to the walls all around. My Wubben-Moy shirt hangs in a locker ahead of me.

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At first glance appears that there is a huge surge in the support for womens football but I don't think that it is a big as perhaps the media is suggesting it is

Leah Williamson herself said that there was a dip in support after the initial surge after the euros- needs to be consistent

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From the Lionesses putting pressure on the Government for girls' rights to play football or discussions with the FA over bonus talks, to the new mums calling out clubs for substandard maternity rights - players have been using their voice over the last 12 months.

What is clear, is they will not stop in taking a stand against inequalities in the future. In fact the growth of players fighting for the greater good is being supported and positively encouraged as leading brands align their own empowering messages with the emboldened stars.

Only last year Leah Williamson added to her growing portfolio of sponsorship deals - which includes Pepsi and Nike - by signing a lucrative deal with Gucci tostrengthen their 'Chime For Change' global campaign. More recently, the England captain, who has been forced to sit out this year's World Cup with an ACL injury, became a stakeholder in Toca Football, which runs football-themed social entertainment venues in her effort to normalise the participation of women and girls in the game.

Alessia Russo, who shot to prominence during the Euros last summer and dominated the headlines in the final stages of the January transfer window before her summer switch to Arsenal, is reported to have earned an estimated £4,000 per sponsored post in the first quarter of 2023 through her deals with Oakley and Adidas. The forward is expected to have doubled that figure in the lead up to the World Cup. According to Betting.com, only Williamson, Lucy Bronze and Beth Mead have earned more from social media sponsored posts so far this year.

Deloitte's Annual Review of Football Finance last month showed WSL clubs in the 2021/22 season - which preceded England's Euros-winning summer - brought in a combined revenue of £32m and their Sports Business Group director Zoe Burton believes clubs will look to the commercial growth of players in the future as they continue to build income and expand fanbase.

"The stage which women's football is at at the moment is about broadening out the funnel, getting as many people to watch and attend games." Burton told Sky Sports.

"Then the focus is, how do you keep them in the funnel? How do you keep them engaged throughout the season and then on to the next season? So that initial exposure and retention of fan is where a lot of focus will be for clubs.

"We are seeing that women's football fans are fans of the game and of the league rather than necessarily having a deep club affiliation yet, so I think that's something that will continue to change and evolve over the next three years. But that really has to be a focus in terms of how do you retain that fandom?

"Then I think the other piece, which is potentially different from the men's game, there's been a real focus on how do you commercialise the women's game? The commercial revenue, whether that's from sponsorships, or more innovative partnerships, will be a big focus for clubs and women's football going forwards and that's what we've seen out of the English game, so the focus has shifted to commercial revenue rather than necessarily broadcast revenue and that's something we think the English game will follow.

"The stories which the athletes can tell can be really powerful to bring on those fans, but also bring in the commercial sponsors as well and really open up a whole new world of different types of sponsors that haven't necessarily been interested in men's football before, that maybe are interested in women's football," Burton added.

The 'Alex Morgan' effect shows the way

Last month, National Women's Soccer League side Gotham's marketing team tapped into an opponent's pulling power to break their home attendance record.

"See Alex Morgan at Red Bull Arena", was the message splashed on Gotham's social media channels in the build-up to their league contest against San Diego Wave featuring their USWNT star.

The result? A record-breaking crowd in excess of 15,000 turned out to watch a player boasting 10m followers on Instagram and a two-time World Cup winner.

"I know the Alex Morgan effect because I've seen it for 18 months and everywhere we go she's a global name that young girls want to come and watch," San Diego Waves manager Casey Stoney said after their 1-0 win there. "My little girl's got her name on the back of her shirt. What a great player to look up to."

A star asset on the pitch, Morgan's voice off it, calling for clubs to have better maternity rights and offering the support professional footballers who become mums should be entitled to.

Her comments back in January were in the wake of Iceland international Sara Bjork Gunnarsdottir suing her former club Lyon after they withheld her salary during maternity leave. It came in the same month that then-Reading defender Emma Mukandi revealed the lack of maternity conditions available to WSL players, including her experience of having to express breast milk in a cupboard due to a lack of sufficient facilities.

'Strength of women's football community a phenomenon'

Alex Culvin, the head of strategy and research of women's football at FIFPRO, believes clubs need to show that willingness to want to do better for their players - and then action those plans when it comes to issues affecting female footballers.

"I think there's a whole host of gender-specific needs that are much overlooked," Culvin told Sky Sports. "This goes back to not only a lack of vision, but a lack of strategy. It's not a lack of capacity, it's a lack of will. It's a lack of will to ask players questions on what are the gender-specific needs? What is missing at your club? What can we do better?

"The players are leading the charge in lots of ways. They're the ones who are raising concerns. They're the ones who say 'these conditions are not right' and ones who are saying: 'I will sue you if you do not pay me'. The strength of the women's football community is a phenomenon and they are the ones who are driving the game forward - but it can be done in a much more efficient way."

As a former footballer at Liverpool, Leeds and Everton among other clubs over a 14-year period, and as a sports management lecturer and author, Culvin has seen a staggering growth in the game yet has been most heartened by the rise of player power.

"The coolest observation that I have made working in women's football and playing women's football professionally for the last, let's say 25 years of my life, players are now recognising their power," she said.

Players are now recognising their power. They're using their platform and using it to make societal changes. It's the most inspiring thing to come out of this acceleration of professionalisation.
Alex Culvin, FIFPRO head of strategy for women's football

"They're using their platform and using it to make societal changes and I think, I'm saying it's cool as I can't think of another way, but it's the most inspiring thing to come out of this acceleration of professionalisation.

"The second component of it and I think this is really important, is the collective that they are a part of. So when the Lionesses are writing to MPs, or to the Government to say 'there needs to be this amount of hours and this amount of PE teachers for women and for girls in schools'. If Leah Williamson goes forward to the Prime Minister and says it, that's OK because it's Leah Williamson and she's got an incredible platform. But the whole of the Lionesses on the back of winning the Euros is so powerful and it's so inspiring."

Culvin also drew on her work experiences back in October when FIFPRO and its member unions helped deliver for better conditions at this summer's World Cup.

"It's the same as when we wrote to FIFA. If we went to them and said FIFPRO demands there's 30 per cent of all prize money goes to players, it's like 'okay great'. But if we go to FIFA and say there's over 150 players who have signed this from over 25 national teams who are demanding equity in equal conditions and pay equity and a pathway to equality then we make those three demands. It's huge. It doesn't get done without the players. Nothing gets done without the players.

"So there is an acceleration of players using the platform for good and it's not just about, hey, come and watch England this weekend. It's saying we want girls to have an opportunity to play PE. It's not about prize money for the sake of equality. We want 30 per cent of that to go in the pockets of players, which means that they will be able to support themselves for a year or two years or whatever it is. And it's like these incredible collective actions that we see among the women's football community are really quite unique."

It was collective action that saw the Lionesses engage in discussions with the FA ahead of the World Cup over bonus payments, one which lingered right up until the eve of the tournament before Millie Bright's declaration that the squad were putting those conversations on hold.

Demanding change is a far cry from the era before the game turned professional and even in the first few years as it was finding its feet as a full-time set-up.

Beth Mead wrote in her book, Lioness: My Journey to Glory about how players used to feel 'grateful' for the facilities and environment they were in.

"For a long time, many of us in women's football - players included - have been grateful for training at the same training ground as the men or getting breakfast and lunch served to us at the club. Two or three years ago, we would have been happy with a sub-par pitch. 'Thank you,' we'd have said. 'That's fine'.

"Now, though, we will ask for better. Crucially, we're not scared to make demands. We're not happy to settle. We will fight for what we deserve - and we do deserve more. We are demanding more from the game because we want more for the game. We're delivering success and these things are vital for us to reach the next level."

The rise of player power is growing wings and momentum and the next generation of footballers can have the current blossoming crop to thank for laying the historic foundations.
For more Future of Women's Football stories, visit Sky Sports.com and the Sky Sports app

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Future of Football: How rise of player power is shaping future of women's game

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The strength of the womens football community is a phenomenon and they are the ones who are driving the game forward: fighting inequalities, commercial growth and empowering the next generation of talent; the players can hold the cards when it comes to the future of the womens game

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FA banned it in 1921

only lifted in 1971

women could only make living out of from 2009

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Since England's Lionesses lifted the European trophy in 2022, the buzz around women's football has been stronger than ever. Leading male and female voices in sport have advocated for more support from grassroots to professional level.

However, the journey of women's football hasn't been easy. From a lack of funding to a 50-year long ban, the sport has faced a barrage of discrimination lasting centuries. To celebrate the Women's World Cup, we're taking a whistlestop tour through the history of women's football in the UK.

The early years of women's football

Records show that women were taking part in casual football matches as early as the 15 th century. Just like their male counterparts, women played within their local community as a pass time. From then on, teams were formed and regular matches took place.

' A tyme there is for all, my mother often sayes,
When she, with skirts tuckt very hy, with girles at football playes.'
- Sir Philip Sidney's poem A Dialogue Between Two Shepherds, written in 1580

As the sport grew, so did the backlash.

The first recorded match was between England and Scotland, 7 th May 1881 in Edinburgh. The teams then went on to play two other matches in Glasgow and Manchester, which were abandoned due to violent protests.

The 1921 ban on women's football

During World War 1, women's football became incredibly popular. Men were sent away to the continent to fight for king and country whilst women stayed at home. In this time, it was reported every town in England developed a women's team. There was increasing demand to create leagues and governing body to allow women to play professionally.

However, when the war ended, the success of women's football was deemed a threat to the men's game. Women were also expected to return to their traditional, domestic lifestyle. This included the world of sport, where legal action was taken to prohibit women from taking part in organised matches.

In 1921, the FA implemented a countrywide ban on women's football.

Women were banned from playing organised football and using professional pitches and facilities. Registered referees were no longer allowed to officiate games. Lies were spread in the media surrounding finances and women's bodies were deemed to fragile to play a game as physical as football.

1971 - modern day

The FA didn't lift the ban until 1971. Even though women still played within those 50 years, there are no records of anything that happened during that time. It caused severe long-term damage to the women's game which has taken decades to build back up.

It wasn't until 2009 that the FA introduced central contracts, meaning women were finally able to make a career out of the sport. In England, there was not a professional female football league until 2018.

The history of women's football in England makes the Lionesses reaching the Women's World Cup Final more special. After centuries of misogyny, violence, and legal action taken to prevent it, it's rise in popularity happened against all odds. Go Lionesses, go!

For more news from the world of women, follow us on social media:

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The History of Women's Football in England

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Since the Lionesses have reached the Women's World Cup Final, we're taking a whistlestop tour of women's football in England.

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Copa 71- new doc on women World Cup 1971

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Copa 71- new doc on women World Cup 1971

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Desperate to watch this new doc on the woman's word cup in 1971 but still in cinemas

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(Image: Bongarts/Getty Images)

England women's football team are on the verge of winning the biggest tournament in the world.

After the Lionesses beat the host nation, Australia, 3 -1 on Wednesday the nation is set to cheer on yet another defining moment for the women's game. If England can overcome Spain on Sunday, they will be the first English team to be crowned FIFA World Cup winners since 1966.

This comes on the back of the team's outstanding success last year, becoming UEFA Women's EURO 2022 Champions. Not only that, by beating Germany 2 - 1 in the final, they overcame a nation on the biggest stage; one that has shattered footy fans' hearts more times than we care to remember.
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The outstanding successes of the English women's national team over the past few years has been in step with the growing professionalism, and increasing media attention of, the Women's Super League (WSL) founded in 2011.

But to get to the place we are now, women's football in the country has had to endure a long and unjust battle. Without the resilience of women's amateur teams and players of the past, the Lionesses would not be on the brink of sporting history in which they find themselves today.

To celebrate the prospect of football coming home...again. Below the Manchester Evening News produced a timeline of 14 defining moments for women's football in Britain.

1881 - The first recorded women's football match took place

The first recorded women's match took place on May 7, 1881. Billed as Scotland Vs England, the match took place at Easter Road, Edinburgh, but it wasn't without controversy.

The supposed nationalities of the players were called into question, with accusations some of the players were theatre performers acting in the roles. In front of a crowd of around 2,000 spectators, Lily St Clair scored the first goal as the team representing Scotland came out 2-0 winners.
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1895 - British Ladies' Football Club (BLFC) was formed

The British Ladies' Football Club was formed in London. President of the club was Lady Florence Dixie, who introduced practical playing attire for the women, including shin pads and proper football boots.

The same year, the BLFC staged a North Vs South of The Thames match, which attracted 10,000 paying spectators to watch the North win 7 - 1.
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1914 to 1918 - World War One

With so many men away fighting, women took over more traditionally male jobs such as factory work. Women's football factory teams started forming, giving birth to the Munitionettes' Cup in 1917.

By 1921, there were approximately 150 women's football clubs, but with men and women returning to more traditional roles after the war, women's football was about to receive a devastating blow.

1921 - FA bans women's football

With the closing of factories following the war and women going back to more traditional roles, questions began to be raised on whether football was damaging women's health. Harley Street physician, Doctor Mary Scharlieb described the sport as "unsuitable" for a women's physical frame.

After a meeting at its headquarters in London on December 5, 1921, The FA announced a ban on women's football being played at professional grounds and pitches of clubs affiliated to The FA, the football governing body, stating: "The game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged."

The resulting FA ban meant the women's game was side-lined, leaving teams with no option but to play and train in public parks for the next 50-years.

1949 - Manchester Corinthians formed

Despite the FA ban, women's football remained popular and in 1921 the English Ladies Football Association (ELFA) formed. Although lacking decent grounds and facilities, the women's game continued to be played, resorting to games being held at rugby clubs and smaller grounds.

In 1949, Bolton Wanderers scout, Percy Ashley, founded Manchester Corinthians Ladies FC so that his daughter, Doris, could play in a team. The team played at Fog Lane Park, Didsbury, with players often resorting to clean themselves in the duck pond after games due to the lack of facilities.

Ashley set up a second team, The Nomads, in 1957, so the Corinthians could have somebody to play against in charity matches. The Corinthians went on to win an unofficial European cup championship in Germany in 1957.

1969 - Women's Football Association (WFA) forms

A few years earlier in 1967, a football tournament called the Deal Tournament, had taken place to showcase and celebrate the women's game. But despite societal changes in the '60s and women campaigning for their social rights, the FA ban remained in place. In 1969, representatives of 44 women's football clubs attended the first meeting of the Women's Football Association.

1970 - FA rescinds ban on women's football

With pressure being put on the FA to lift its ban on women's football, on January 19, 1970, The FA voted to rescind the 1921 resolution. This meant women could now play on FA affiliated grounds and registered referees could officiate women's games.

As well as official league matches in 1971, The FA launched a women's knock-out competition which was later become The FA Women's Cup.

1972 - Official England Women's Football Association (WFA) team plays first ever international match

In November 1972, the first official WFA England team played their first international match against Scotland, winning the game 3 - 2, avenging the 2 - 0 loss that took place 91-years earlier. During the 1970s, '80s and early '90s, the WFA continued to grow the women's game.

In 1984, the WFA was affiliated with the same status as County FAs, allowing The FA to increase its support the women's game.

1991 - WFA launches national league and FIFA introduces women's World Cup

1991 was a defining year for women's football. It was the year the WFA launched its 24-club national league, which was expanded to three divisions the following year. It was also the same year FIFA introduced the women's World Cup competition.

In 1993, the WFA voted to pass over its activities to the FA, so that greater financial resources could continue to develop the women's game.

2002 - Football named top participation team sport for women and girls in England

Following the FIFA women's World Cup Final taking place in the US in 1999, which attracted a crowd of 90,000 for the final, women's football started gaining more media attention. By 2002, it had become the top participation team sport for women and girls in England.

2005 - England hosts the UEFA Women's EURO

In 2005, England hosted the UEFA Women's EUROs, attracting record crowds and TV audiences for the women's game. In one match, England beat Finland 2-1 in what was a European record crowd of 29,092 at the City of Manchester Stadium.

2011 - Creation of The FA Women's Super League (WSL)

With the strength of England's international team, 2011 saw the creation of The FA Women's Super League (WSL), replacing the Women's Premier League National Division as the highest level of women's football in England. This grew into the two-division fully professional game we have today.

2012 - London Olympic Games

Another defining moment in increasing the national consciousness of the women's game, was the London 2012 Olympic Games. It saw Team GB beat Brazil 1 - 0 in front of 70,584 fans at Wembley Stadium, reaching the quarter-finals before getting knocked out of the competition.

For context, the first England women's international game played at Wembley in 1989, took place as a 'warm up' to a men's international game.
Does this story awaken any memories for you? Let us know in the comments section below.
2022 - Lionesses crowned UEFA Women's EURO champions

Well this is the one most of Britain, football fans or not, will remember. 2022 saw England win the UEFA Women's EURO Final, beating Germany 2 - 1. In front of a 87,192 Wembley crowd, the Lionesses' brilliance on the field has helped sky-rocket the popularity of the women's game, creating countless new opportunities for girls and women to take up the sport at grassroots and professional levels.

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14 defining moments in the history of women's football in Britain

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'The game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged'

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supposedly credited with introducing football to Brazil

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The Corinthian-Casuals Football Club was formed in 1939 following the merger of the two great amateur sides bearing those names. The Corinthians were founded in 1882. N.L. “Pa” Jackson, who was…

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Almost 50 years have passed since they stepped off the plane and into a parallel universe but their memories of the full-scale assault on the senses remain as vivid as ever.

"It was utterly surreal, like going to Narnia; we were being transported to a different world," says Chris Lockwood. "Nothing prepared us for the crowds, the noise. It was amazing.

"We'd gone from playing on park pitches and suddenly we were running out in front of 80,000 people inside huge stadiums and being invited to a cocktail party at the British Embassy. It was an unknown world. We didn't realise it at the time but it was a moment in history."

Lockwood was part of a band of pioneers who, during an era when the Football Association barred women from playing a game they deemed "quite unsuitable for females", represented a rebel England side which in 1971 participated in an unofficial World Cup in Mexico. She and her teammates helped rekindle interest in a sport which burgeoned in Britain after the first world war but, in 1921, was banned for 50 years by the FA.

Phil Neville's fully professional England squad would do well to spare a thought for Lockwood, her fellow trailblazers and the man who made it all possible.

The late Harry Batt, manager of both that convention-challenging, prejudice-defying, 1971 team and Chiltern Valley Ladies, was a visionary. A prophet in the wilderness, Batt battled - often forlornly - to persuade the FA to open their eyes to the immense potential of women's football.

Although the ruling body did lift the ban three months after his rebels returned from Mexico City, it was done in a slightly grudging manner, with women allowed to play at FA-affiliated grounds but advised, albeit tacitly, to "stay in your lane".

Batt continued to be largely ostracised by Lancaster Gate's top brass. He was met with a complete lack of interest, says Jean Williams, professor of sport at Wolverhampton University, as well as "outright chauvinism."

Yet in Mexico City, in August 1971, his 14-strong squad were treated like royalty from the moment they walked through passport control into a brave new world of flashing cameras and cheering crowds. "It didn't matter to the Mexicans that we were female, it was football," says Lockwood. "But it was thanks to Harry and his wife June, who helped run the team, that we were there. Harry had a big vision for women's football; we hope that now he'll finally be recognised."

It was 20 years before Fifa staged the first official Women's World Cup but their commercial department was made to look several yards off the pace by Martini & Rossi, sponsors of Mexico '71, who funded travel and accommodation for the six participating teams.

A year earlier, the drinks company had also facilitated the first unofficial women's World Cup in Italy but 1971 elevated the game to a whole new level, with 110,000 watching Denmark beat Mexico 3-0 in the final.

By way of heightening marketing appeal to a female audience, the goal frames were painted in pink and white hoops, all stadium staff wore pink outfits and pop-up hair and beauty salons appeared outside the Azteca Stadium.

"Mexico '71 was a success because the organisers planned it very well and were very financially shrewd," says Williams. "They never assumed it would be a commercial or sporting failure. It was sold and promoted as a proper football tournament that just happened to feature females."

Indeed it was such a hit that Williams discovered the media coverage extended to a Mexican soft porn magazine. "The match reports were the only non-smutty thing in it," she says.

England lost their three games but, considering they were unable to play on proper pitches at home and their squad contained three teenagers in Lockwood, then 15, Gill Sayell, 14, and Leah Caleb, 13, Batt's side departed with heads held high. "The games were extremely physical," recalls Caleb. "The one against Argentina was brutal - two players ended up in plaster casts."

Not that anyone in England seemed remotely interested. The three teenagers simply returned to school and immediate anonymity. "In Mexico we'd been on television, had police escorts, done interviews, signed autographs and been welcomed by the British Embassy, but nothing was said at school," says Lockwood. "No teacher ever mentioned it. It was as if it had never happened. There was nothing - and no one - to give us a voice, so we kept our story to ourselves."

It would be another 15 years before Fifa embraced the women's game and that came only after a hefty nudge from the Norwegians back in Mexico City - evidently the early de facto capital of women's football. Perhaps it had something to do with the rarefied, high altitude, air but, at the 1986 Fifa congress, the delegation from Oslo succeeded in persuading the international ruling body to take "the fillies" fully under its wing. Seven years later the FA finally followed suit.

An awful lot of water had passed under the bridge since 1628 and the first recorded match involving women in Europe. Documents from south Lanarkshire dating back almost 400 years detail a Scottish church minister's outraged condemnation of the men and women spied playing mixed football across Carstairs village green on the sabbath.

France 2019 may be Scotland's first World Cup but, like Mexico, the country provided a significant staging post in the world's game's history. Edinburgh quite possibly witnessed the birth of international fixtures when, late in the 19th century, a team of English women crossed Hadrian's Wall to face a home side led by Helen Graham Matthews. A riot erupted among 5,000 extremely excited spectators and, shortly afterwards, women's football was outlawed across Scotland. Graham Matthews simply decamped to London where she joined forces with Nettie Honeyball in establishing the British Ladies' Football Club in 1895.

Their first fixture, at the Crouch End Athletic Ground in Hornsey, north London, attracted a 12,000-strong crowd and stemmed from a newspaper advert placed by Honeyball - a pseudonym - seeking players. Thirty, mainly middle-class women responded with the sympathies of most resting firmly with the suffragette movement.

Women's football has often developed along parallel lines to feminism, its periods of rapid growth invariably coinciding with waves of wider emancipation. Tellingly, Honeyball was anxious to demonstrate that, liberated from their uncomfortable and oppressively restrictive Victorian clothing, women could be athletic and physically capable.

Honeyball found a soulmate in Lady Florence Dixie. A Scottish war correspondent, explorer and feminist, Lady Florence variously reported on South Africa's Boer and Anglo Zulu wars, traversed Patagonia and became president of the British Ladies.

She died of diphtheria before the first world war opened the game to a much broader, more working-class constituency. With so many men suddenly spirited away to fight on foreign fields, women staffed farms and factories and it was not long before many enjoyed regular lunchtime kickabouts.

Soon they were playing organised matches with spectators' admission money funnelled to the charities which fulfilled the societal functions later performed by the NHS and the welfare state. "Women who had previously been in service worked outside the home for the first time," says Williams. "It was a huge change."

Perhaps the most celebrated factory team was Dick, Kerr's Ladies in Preston, which raised a collective sum equivalent to millions of pounds in today's money, but the game also blossomed among those employed by munitions factories, particularly in Northumberland and Durham.

In 2018 a blue plaque was finally installed at Croft Park, home of Blyth Spartans, in honour of Bella Reay who scored 133 goals in a single season as the club's Ladies won the Munitionettes' Cup.

Little did she know it but Reay was playing in an era which laid the foundations of female football's eventual globalisation and has turned some of her north-east-born successors, most notably Lucy Bronze, Steph Houghton and Jill Scott - very much the nucleus of Neville's England - into international stars.

Accordingly the war's end prefaced the advent of European competition and, in 1920, a French team managed by a leading feminist named Alice Milliat crossed the channel for a tour which kicked off with the players arriving in Preston to be serenaded by a brass band and streets lined by thousands of cheering fans.

Boxing Day 1920 suggested that women's football was more popular than the men's version when Dick, Kerr's Ladies v St Helens Ladies at Goodison Park attracted 53,000 supporters with a further 15,000 turned away.

The famous Lyons coffee houses supported a number of teams, frequently decorating their cake boxes with pictures of women kicking balls. A 21st century equivalent would involve images of Houghton or Bronze adorning Starbucks or Costa merchandise.

In 1921 the FA took fright and, after consulting "medical experts", made the reactionary decision to bar women from playing on all affiliated grounds. For several decades the female game virtually disappeared from public view - and not only in England.

France banned it in 1932, West Germany in 1955, Norway in 1931 and Brazil from 1941. They were not alone. As an era of socially conservative rightwing dictatorships assumed power across South America, a sport the continent's historians had noted women first playing in the early 1900s entered hibernation became an isolated, almost underground, movement.

West Germany's DFB depicted their ban as a defence of femininity. "This aggressive sport is essentially alien to the nature of woman," it decreed in 1955. "In the fight for the ball, the feminine grace vanishes, body and soul will inevitably suffer harm ... The display of the woman's body offends decency and modesty."

An Englishman named Percy Ashley was among those infuriated by such blatant sexism. In 1949 he enabled his football-mad daughter, Doris, to play by founding Manchester Corinthians, a side comprised mainly of typists and machinists.

The Corinthians became so quietly successful that the Red Cross flew them to South America for a series of fundraising matches. Subsequent tours of Europe and North Africa helped raise a collective £275,000 for the charity and, in 1957, they won an unofficial tournament in Germany with Bert Trautmann, of Manchester City goalkeeping fame, acting as interpreter.

Yet without a national framework and institutionalised support, teams like the Corinthians represented rare oases in a footballing desert.

The importance of state endorsement was highlighted in the United States in 1972. No matter that North American women were late to the party and did not begin kicking balls in earnest until the 70s; a piece of federal legislation known as Title IX would not merely serve as a catalyst for radical change but alter an entire nation's sporting topography.

Title IX is the reason the US remain the foremost power in women's football and head to France as World Cup holders. In enforcing gender equality in high school and college education, both academic and sporting, it created a legal imperative that female athletes be afforded equal rights to federal financial assistance.

Fast-forward to a sweltering Californian afternoon in 1999 as, with a single swipe of her supposedly weak left foot, Brandi Chastain converted the final penalty of the tensest of shootouts against China to win the World Cup for the US.

As she celebrated by whipping off her shirt to reveal a black sports bra, the 90,185 crowd inside Pasadena's Rose Bowl swayed to Jennifer Lopez's Let's Get Loud. Admittedly Chastain's iconic cameo would eventually be seen as a starting gun for evolution rather than revolution but, temporarily at least, the planet woke up to the potential of women's football.

A defender with two reconstructed knees dubbed "Hollywood" by teammates in homage to her love of big occasions and bright lights, Chastain tricked China's goalkeeper by deciding against taking the kick with her preferred right foot. "As I walked up I thought: 'Don't look at the keeper,'" Chastian recalls. "When I hit it everything went into slow motion, it was like being in a car accident. It was life affirming."

Eight years earlier the first official World Cup - well sort of - had taken place in China. Fifa's concerns about its brand somehow being tainted by female involvement provoked a compromise whereby the word "Cup" was dropped from a tournament sponsored by Mars and named The First Fifa World Championship for Women's Football. Games lasted only 80 minutes. "Fifa was afraid our ovaries were going to fall out," deadpanned the then-US captain April Heinrichs in Gemma Clarke's excellent book Soccerwomen.

Women's football had been banned in China until 1970 and the tournament was televised merely on domestic channels but, contrary to expectations, grounds were packed. Almost 65,000 filled the Guangdong Stadium to see Michelle Akers score twice as the US beat Norway 2-1 in the final. Considering the Americans suffered debilitating stomach upsets and arrived clutching toilet rolls to equip them for Guangdong's hole-in-the-ground lavatories it was quite an achievement.

Other countries started taking note. Denmark, Italy, Norway and Sweden were initially the most enlightened but Germany swiftly caught up. A side propelled by the free-scoring, three-times world footballer of the year Birgit Prinz proceeded to five straight European Championships in addition to the 2003 and 2007 World Cups. After Prinz's retirement, they defended the Euros in 2013.

Germany had aimed for a World Cup hat-trick in 2011, staged on home soil, but a star was rising in the east and the hosts were knocked out by the Nadeshiko in the quarter-finals. A Japan side starring midfielder Homare Sawa beat the US in the final, with those positions reversed at Canada 2015.

It was a far cry from 1980 when Japan staged its first women's tournament. Played eight-a-side on mini pitches using children's footballs, halves lasted 25 minutes and handballs were permissible if they protected players' breasts.

Change was eventually driven by business behemoths. During the late 1980s, at the height of Japan's economic boom, leading companies including Nissan began sponsoring teams in a new semi-professional league. Players were allocated office jobs allowing ample time off for training regimes big on technical skills.

As the years passed, exceptional women footballers around the world such as Brazil's Marta - dubbed "Pelé in a skirt" - challenged accepted narratives about patriarchal cultures and male and female behavioural conventions.

Yet as Lockwood prepares to cheer the Lionesses on in France she reflects on a wasted opportunity. "Mexico '71 was the stepping stone for women's football to move forward but the FA missed a big chance," she reflects. "I feel sorry for the girls who came after us and didn't get the same opportunities but I'm so pleased, so thrilled, to see today's England players finally getting everything they deserve. I'll be over the moon if they win the World Cup."

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From pink goalposts to blue plaques: a history of women's football

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From outraged 17th-century ministers to the 2019 World Cup via world war, the suffragettes, coffee houses and Jennifer Lopez's Let's Get Loud

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Watch National and Country Dancing - BFI Player

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Want to learn to dance the Swedish Masquerade, Dutch Hakke Toone, or maybe the Italian Tarantella? Essex schoolchildren show us how it’s done.

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Women's Football in Wales - Google Arts & Culture

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Women have faced many obstacles in taking their place on the football field. Despite this, in the space of a century women have shown what it truly means to kick like a girl.

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Flock to your local keep fit class - there’s a war on and Britain needs its citizens in tip-top shape.

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SAO PAULO STATE GOVERNMENT
Governor | João Doria
Secretary of Culture and Creative Economy of the State of São Paulo
Secretary | Sérgio Sá Leitão
Assistant Secretary | Claudia Pedrozo
Coordinator of the Museum Heritage Preservation Unit | Antonio Lessa

FOOTBALL MUSEUM
Culture, Education and Sport - social organization of culture
Administrative Council
President | Carlos Antonio Luque
Vice President | Clara of Asunción Azevedo
Executive Director | Eric Klug
Administrative and Financial Director | Victoria Boldrin
Director of Content | Daniela Alfonsi

IMPEDIMENTO MUSEUM
Google Initiative and Museum of Football
Curator Daniela Alfonsi and Camila Aderaldo - Football Museum
Research Assistant Ligia Dona - Football Museum

Virtual exhibition Michael Jackson
Research Aira Bonfim and Cassimano
Text Aira Bonfim and Daniela Alfonsi

Virtual exhibition Lea Campos
Research Aira Bonfim and Cassimano
Text Aira Bonfim and Daniela Alfonsi

Virtual Exhibition Museum of Impediment
Research Aira Bonfim, Ligia Dona and Camila Aderaldo
Text Aira Bonfim and Daniela Alfonsi

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Women, disobedience and resilience - Google Arts & Culture

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A decree banned women's football in Brazil. Get to know the stories of the women who kept on playing.

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women in sport, art and design references 

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women in sport, art and design references 

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some interesting takes on womens sport from some creatives

some perhaps a bit cringe but support is support and it brings up conversations

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Despite contending with a whole different (injury-worsening) playing field, female footballers are levelling it – though there’s still plenty of ground to cover. As the Women’s World Cup kicks off, and working in the slipstream of female football’s remarkable momentum, Plinth has curated an online exhibition of women a

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Arsenal mens home ground, but as woman team grows more in popularity they are holding more home games there

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Arsenal Emirates Stadium Tours - Buy your tickets now

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Book your stadium tour today - Offering audio and legend tours from £27

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current home grounds for arsenal women football team, only 4,500 capacity compared to 60,000 of Emirates

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43% of girls who once considered themselves sporty drop out of sport after primary school

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Ahead of International Women's Day, Women in Sport has found that more than one million teenage girls (43%) who once considered themselves 'sporty', disengage from sport following primary school. A fear of feeling judged by others (68%), lack of confidence (61%), pressures of schoolwork (47%) and not feeling safe outside (43%) were some of the reasons given for not wanting to participate for this group of girls.

The charity surveyed 4000 teenage girls and boys as part of its research work 'Reframing Sport for Teenage Girls', funded by Sport England. It found 43% of teenage girls who once actively engaged with and enjoyed sport were being side-lined in their teenage years and made to feel not good enough, compared with just 24% of boys of the same age. Women in Sport believe this group is the 'The Missed Opportunity.'

This comes at a time when teenage girls are experiencing an increase in mental health issues, especially relating to loneliness and anxiety*, which has been amplified by the recent pandemic.

who once considered themselves 'sporty' drop out of sport after primary school

say a fear of feeling judged by others is a barrier to doing sport

Women in Sport's research found complex barrier and deep-rooted negative attitudes are affecting girls' enjoyment of sport. Body image and puberty are also significant factors. 78% say they avoid sport when they have their period while 73% don't like others watching them take part in activity.

Stephanie Hilborne, Women in Sport CEO said: "It's an absolute travesty that teenage girls are being pushed out of sport at such a scale. Losing sport from their lives during these formative years equates to a loss of joy as well as good lifelong health. It is well documented that taking part in physical activity can have a profound and positive effect on mental wellbeing as well as providing many pivotal life skills such as resilience, teamwork and communication.

It's an absolute travesty that teenage girls are being pushed out of sport at such a scale.

"We must bust the myth that teenage girls drop out of sport simply because their priorities change. Our research has found that 59% of teenage girls who used to be sporty like competitive sport, but they're being failed due to early years stereotyping, inadequate opportunities and a complete dearth of knowledge about managing female puberty.

"The transition from childhood to adulthood should be filled with happiness, opportunity and optimism for the future. Teenage girls are not voluntarily leaving sport, they are being pushed out as a consequence of deep-rooted gender stereotypes. We must all do more to reverse this trend and not continue to accept this as inevitable. No-one should be excluded from the joy, fulfilment and lifelong benefits of sport and exercise."

The charity is calling for the sport, leisure and education sectors to work harder to prevent teenage girls from gradually disengaging from sport, particularly in the transition from primary to secondary school and during puberty. Activity offerings need to be reframed to cater for the changing needs of girls and make them feel they deserve to play, whatever their level of ability.

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More than 1 million teenage girls fall 'out of love' with sport

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Ahead of International Women's Day, Women in Sport has found that more than one million teenage girls (43%) who once considered themselves 'sporty', disengage from sport following primary school.

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Did the pandemic affect the number of girls in sports?

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Did the pandemic affect the number of girls in sports?

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Why is mens sport seen, culturally and in the media, as the default?

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Why is mens sport seen, culturally and in the media, as the default?

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Are privately educated kids more likely to achieve higher levels of success in professional sports?

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Are privately educated kids more likely to achieve higher levels of success in professional sports?

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I Have very little knowledge of womens rugby

Except that a girl from my school died from an injury while playing it at uni

would be interesting to look further into it

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what causes the common theme of girls giving up sport when they reach secondary school?

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what causes the common theme of girls giving up sport when they reach secondary school?

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what are people's attitudes to women's sport in general, would they consider watching it, is it better/worse than mens etc?

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what are people's attitudes to women's sport in general, would they consider watching it, is it better/worse than mens etc?

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Does the culture of football hooliganism carry on into the women's games and if so how does it manifest itself?

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Does the culture of football hooliganism carry on into the women's games and if so how does it manifest itself?

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Are women of colour under represented in professional sporting careers?

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Are women of colour under represented in professional sporting careers?

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What can be done to normalise women's sport so it is not seen as inferior to men's?

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What can be done to normalise women's sport so it is not seen as inferior to men's?

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How is netball perceived by the public, given that it is generally considered a more feminine sport? 

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How is netball perceived by the public, given that it is generally considered a more feminine sport? 

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Is funding and sponsorship different from womens to mens sport?

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Is funding and sponsorship different from womens to mens sport?

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Why is there so little research done into women's injuries eg ACL injuries in football?

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Why is there so little research done into women's injuries eg ACL injuries in football?

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Are training facilities equal in terms of funding, research for both men and women in the same sport?

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Are training facilities equal in terms of funding, research for both men and women in the same sport?

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Does there need to be a change in how women are trained compared to men to cater for injuries that happen more frequently to women?

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Does there need to be a change in how women are trained compared to men to cater for injuries that happen more frequently to women?

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Is there a place in the world that woman sports dominates 

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Is there a place in the world that woman sports dominates 

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Initially, I began with the broad idea that I wanted to look into women's football in some form or another for my FMP as it is something that my Dad and I have been following for many years and we often go to see the WSL Arsenal matches at the Emirates.

I also think that perhaps women's football hasn’t quite got the support that many people think it got after the Euros, while it is growing more popular within the general population, I still do not think that it is getting the funding that it deserves, particularly if it even wants to begin to try and content with the men’s game.

I think that women's sports in general is something that is incredibly underrepresented in mainstream media and has been for a long time, therefore I felt that it deserved more attention than it is currently getting.

I then began to consider that women's football specifically, was slightly too niche to do a whole 9 week project on and subsequently chose to broaden it to women’s sports as a whole. I think that by doing this I can narrow down later on, but it also means that in the initial stages, I can consider the much broader impact that both politics and society have in influencing how popular women’s sport is.

I think that also looking into how girl’s sports are nurtured and developed through the early years of schooling and even into university, will be such a rich area for discussion within my project. Particularly as I, myself have seen and experienced this first hand. However, the topic also allows for more intersectionality and I will hopefully be able to explore and research the impact that lack of support and funding has had on less well-off girls and women of colour with regard to their sporting endeavours.

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At what point did gendered sport become so polarising? And has it always been this way?

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At what point did gendered sport become so polarising? And has it always been this way?

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Is there a lack of diversity with in women sport?

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Is there a lack of diversity with in women sport?

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How does lack of funds manifest itself in sportswomen who are trying to make it professionally?

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How does lack of funds manifest itself in sportswomen who are trying to make it professionally?

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How does amateur sport compare to that of the men's counterpart, pay, facilities, drop out rates, chances of success?

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How does amateur sport compare to that of the men's counterpart, pay, facilities, drop out rates, chances of success?

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How does women sport in UK compare to other countries?

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How does women sport in UK compare to other countries?

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Is lack of representation a global issue or a more singular issue for the uk?

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Is lack of representation a global issue or a more singular issue for the uk?

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What methods are other countries using to support womens sports?

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What methods are other countries using to support womens sports?

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Wimbledon grounds? Perhaps will be able to find out about the history of women tennis compared to mens

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Wimbledon grounds? Perhaps will be able to find out about the history of women tennis compared to mens

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Would be interesting to explore how women's tennis compares to mens, trophies etc

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The Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum is a must-see destination for any tennis fan visiting London. Located within the grounds of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, the museum offers a fascinating insight into the history and traditions of the Wimbledon championships, the oldest and most prestigious tennis tournament in the world.

Upon entering the museum, visitors are greeted by a large collection of rackets, balls, and other tennis memorabilia, spanning the history of the game. The "Champions Gallery" showcases portraits and biographies of every Wimbledon singles champion, from the inaugural winner in 1877 to the current holders of the trophy. This is a particularly interesting exhibit for fans of the game, offering a chance to learn about the achievements and careers of some of the greatest players to have graced the courts at Wimbledon.

Another highlight of the museum is the "Evolution of the Racket" exhibit, which traces the development of the modern tennis racket from its early wooden incarnations to the high-tech composite materials used today. Visitors can also try their hand at a virtual reality experience, allowing them to play on Centre Court at Wimbledon and experience what it's like to compete at the iconic tournament.

In addition to the permanent exhibits, the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum also hosts a variety of temporary exhibitions throughout the year. Past exhibitions have included a retrospective of the career of seven-time Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras, and a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Open Era in tennis.

But the museum is more than just a collection of exhibits and artefacts, some dating back to 1555. It is a place where the love of the game and the traditions of Wimbledon are brought to life, offering something for every fan of tennis, whether they are an ardent enthusiast or a casual spectator. The museum also has a café and a shop, where visitors can purchase souvenirs and merchandise related to the tournament.

Despite being located within the grounds of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum is open to the public year-round and is easily accessible by public transport. It is a short walk from Southfields underground station, and there are also frequent bus services from central London.

If you find yourself in London during the Wimbledon championships, or at any other time of the year, be sure to set aside some time to visit the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum. It is a truly delightful and enlightening experience, offering a unique insight into the rich history and culture of this iconic sporting event. Whether you are a die-hard tennis fanatic or simply looking for an interesting day out, the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum is a must-see destination for anyone visiting the city.

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The Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum | Museums London - FREE resource of all 200 museums in London.

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The Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum | Museums London - FREE resource of all 200 museums in London. | A free resource of museums in London; FREE museums, child friendly, prices, categories and photos, open times and directions. FIND OUT MORE HERE ▸

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Museum of London -celebrating the joy of sports

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Museum of London -celebrating the joy of sports

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The museum has really niche artefacts about UK sport so I'm certain there would be something interesting, with a weird perspective that would be really interesting for my project

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Skip to main content

A Sainsbury's sports day

Assistant Archivist Liane MacIver shows us about a photograph collection and what it tells us about sports and Sainsbury's.

On display in the Sainsbury's Archive.
Find out more

Johnny Brown's boxing championship belt

This golden Lonsdale belt was worn by bantamweight boxing champion Johnny Borwn, a working-class sporting hero who grew up and lived in London's East End.

On display in the Warehouse of the Worlds gallery.
Find out more

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Celebrate the Olympics and the return of live sports with a look at sporting history.

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Women's Football seems to be taking off quite a lot in London but what about other places?

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Women's Football seems to be taking off quite a lot in London but what about other places?

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Will the WSL succumb to the corruption of Fifa and fa and of so has it already happened?

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Will the WSL succumb to the corruption of Fifa and fa and of so has it already happened?

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don't necessarily focus just on sport

country where womens sport is more prominent than mens?

Wimbledon, mens trophy vs womens, centre court etc

who are the CEOS, who funds

ROSS HOGG- spectator

Tolworth corinthian casuals ---> South America

crowds

primary school sports---> if girls are into football they are looking for attention, unless they are really good

can't have an inbetween either not into it at all or totally invested

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Im really interested to see whether the WSL will succumb to the corruption of FIFA and the FA and if it already has

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WSL plan to become fully independent offers promise but comes with risks | Suzanne Wrack

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The attractive ambition to build first billion-pound women’s league in world raises questions over funding and a commitment to the football pyramid

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problematic womens culture vs problematic mens culture

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Spanish football president kisses player on lips after world cup win

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Spanish football president kisses player on lips after world cup win

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remember watching this and thinking oh maybe its a culture thing

but regardless I think even if the player was ok with it, it was globally televised and therefore millions watching, showing that it is ok just to grab peoples faces and snog them with out verbal consent. very bad

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The president of the Spanish football federation, Luis Rubiales, has come in for criticism after he kissed the forward Jenni Hermoso on the lips following Spain's 1-0 victory over England in the World Cup final in Sydney on Sunday night.

The kiss - delivered on stage during the official post-match ceremony - was captured on camera and has prompted outrage on social media.

Hermoso said on a live stream afterwards that she "didn't like it".

In comments later provided to the media by the Spanish football federation, Hermoso was attributed as saying: "It was a totally spontaneous mutual gesture because of the immense joy that winning a World Cup brings. The president and I have a great relationship, his behaviour with all of us has been outstanding and it was a natural gesture of affection and gratitude."

Rubiales brushed off any suggestion that the act was inappropriate. "It was a kiss between two friends celebrating something," he told the broadcaster COPE on Sunday, dismissing those who saw it differently as "idiots and stupid people". He added: "Let's ignore them and enjoy the good things."

Reaction to the kiss continued to dominate Spanish news on Monday, with the minister of equality in the caretaker government, Irene Montero, describing it as "a form of sexual violence that we women suffer on a daily basis and until now has been invisible," on social media. "We can't normalise this," she added.

Her view was backed by Nadia Tronchoni, who leads sports coverage at the newspaper El País. "It's an intrusion," she wrote. "An invasion of one's personal space. Without consent. An aggression."

The Socialist politician Adrián Barbón characterised it as an "absolute lack of respect and an abuse that neither the moment, nor the euphoria, nor the joy justifies", while a spokesperson for the leftwing coalition Sumar, Marta Lois, added her voice to the many on social media calling on Rubiales to resign.

Speaking on the Spanish broadcaster Cadena Ser, the presenter José Luis Sastre hinted at a double standard at play. "In the hundreds of celebrations that we've seen between Rubiales and male players, he didn't grab any of them by the head in order to give them a kiss without asking."

Video from the celebrations also shows Rubiales kissing other players on the cheeks and embracing them.

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Spain's triumph in the Women's World Cup came despite a long period of instability.

Last year 15 players refused to play for the coach Jorge Vilda, complaining about his tactics, training methods and style of management. Vilda said at the time of the boycott the accusations were "unjust" and the country's football federation has maintained support for the coach. Three players subsequently returned and during this tournament Vilda has tried to steer attention away from the dispute and maintain focus on the football.

On an eventful evening, the federation also revealed the captain and goalscorer, Olga Carmona, discovered after the match her father had passed away. When he had died was not disclosed.

"We send our most sincere hugs to Olga and her family in a moment of deep pain," RFEF posted on social media. "We love you, Olga, you are the history of Spanish football."

This article was amended on 11 September 2023 to clarify that remarks attributed to Jenni Hermoso were provided to the media by the Spanish football federation (RFEF). Subsequent statements signed by Hermoso have cast doubt on the level to which she was consulted on the post-match statement provided by RFEF.

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Spanish football president's kiss sparks outrage after Women's World Cup final

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Luis Rubiales rejects suggestions kissing forward Jenni Hermoso on lips at post-match ceremony was inappropriate

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interested to see if F1 Academy will differ to previous attempts eg W series at getting women in race car driving

still uncertain as to whether it will be televised

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Formula One teams are to enter a direct partnership with the sport's all-female feeder series, the F1 Academy, from next season, when they will each have one nominated driver competing under their team name and using their livery. The decision was described as a "landmark moment' by the series' managing director, Susie Wolff.

The F1 Academy was established this year by the sport to address the paucity of women drivers in motor racing and to help build a pathway for a woman to reach F1. The sport has not had a woman start a grand prix since Lella Lombardi raced in Austria in 1976. She and Maria Teresa de Filippis are the only two women to have raced in F1 since the championship began in 1950.

The academy has five teams with 15 drivers competing for five experienced teams who already race in F3 and F2. From next season 10 of those drivers will represent F1 teams, still using the same single-specification cars but each one bearing the colours of their counterparts in F1.

Wolff welcomed the move as a strong gesture from across the F1 teams toward the aims of the academy. "This landmark moment not only demonstrates the depth of support for F1 Academy from across the F1 community but will inspire a whole generation of young girls to realise the opportunities both on and off track in motorsport," she said.

How each team will choose their nominated driver has yet to be revealed, while the remaining five drivers will be "supported by other partners", F1 said in a statement. After the demise of the all-female W Series last season, which foundered when it ran out of backing, the academy has continued its pioneering efforts to increase female participation and exposure in motor sport.

This year has been a low-key opening for the series with no television or live coverage, but in 2024 it will join the meetings on the F1 calendar as a support race and live TV coverage is expected to be part of that expansion. The championship is led by Spain's Marta García with six races remaining and the season finale set to take place as three support races at the US Grand Prix in Austin.

F1's intention is to offer more young women access to track time and racing to help them develop their skills with professional teams who are used to nurturing talent as part of the racing ladder toward F1. The hope is this will make the route into F3 more accessible. The lack of funding available to back young women entering motor sport has been a real hurdle in the past and F1 is looking to go some way to overcome this. It subsidises each car with a budget of €150,000 (£130,000) while the drivers match that total with their own backing. There is no indication yet as to whether F1 teams will also be making any financial contribution toward drivers' costs.

Susie Wolff, managing director of the F1 Academy, at the British Grand Prix earlier this month. Photograph: Kym Illman/Getty Images

The F1 chief executive, Stefano Domenicali, also praised the move as a forward step for the nascent series. "We created F1 Academy to bring about real and lasting change to ensure young female talent have the right system in place to follow and achieve their dreams," he said. "Today is a very important moment as it shows the impact the project is having and the support it is receiving from across the F1 community."

Wolff warned in April, in an interview with the Guardian, that returning a female driver to F1 would be a long process, with no quick fix expected. "I believe it's eight to 10 years away from happening," she said. "That's not just because we are lacking the female talent pool and lacking those who progress through the sport but also because of the realisation that getting to F1 is incredibly tough. It's tough for all of the male drivers."

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'Landmark moment': F1 teams to have one driver each in all-female series

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Susie Wolff, the F1 Academy chief, has hailed Formula One's decision to back the all-women series as a 'landmark moment' in motor sport

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Hello, my name is Gail Newsham, welcome to my website where you will find the most accurate and factual information regarding the Dick, Kerr Ladies, who are arguably the most important team in the history of women's football, and this is my tribute to them. It has taken some considerable time, but appreciation for this long forgotten football team is finally coming to fruition. In 2017, their centenary year, they received a Special Recognition Award from the FA. In 2018 they were recognised by the Royal British Legion for their contribution during the First World War, and also at the North West Football Awards the same year, finally getting the long overdue recognition from the football establishemt they so richly deserve.

For almost three decades since then, I have continued my efforts to get recognition for the team in an effort to bring their glittering history to a wider audience. In 2019, I was made an Honorary Fellow of the University of Central Lancashire in recognition of my work.

Gail Newsham has uncovered the spirit and rare soccer talent which made the Dick, Kerr Ladies the best in the world. Preston Citizen 1994

A story of unparalleled sporting achievement, a struggle against prejudice and financial skulduggery and is a story that, until now, had never been told. Evening Gazette 1994

"Can I tell Gail Newsham through your newspaper how I have thoroughly enjoyed reading her book. The late Florrie Redford was my aunt and how proud she would have been to know that the team would in some small way be part of the history of Preston". Mrs J Shaw, Lancs Evening Post 1994

I recently read your very excellent book. I own around 700 football books and I feel your book is one of the best I have ever read! Brian Ellis BSc, Bedfordshire County Councillor 1995

The Dick, Kerr Ladies were a truly remarkable group of women and they are now given the exposure they so rightly deserve in this poignant book, excellently written by Gail Newsham with an obvious passion for the game. Diva Magazine 1997

The book successfully achieves two things, firstly it documents dates, fixtures, players and scores, putting the women's game on record and secondly it tells a real story about real people who have sadly now passed away or are approaching old age. It is a very fascinating account, easy to read and worth buying. On the Ball magazine 1997

This book is brimming with candidates for a true soccer Hall of Fame. Jane Hoffen, MOTD magazine 1997

PREVIOUS SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS:

Emanuel College, Cambridge University 1998

Burnley Women's Refuge 2001

National Football Museum 2003: "Your talk was absolutely outstanding, hugely entertaining, highly informative and very moving." Kevin Moore, Museum Director

Lowry Conference Centre - 2003 NHS Conference

University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) 2004: "Thank you for your splendid contribution to our conference. The evaluation has been very high with particular reference to the calibre of the speakers." Malcolm Rae - Alison Hitchen

University of Manchester - UMIST 2004

National Football Museum/Fulwood Methodist Church 2005: "Everyone I have spoken to was expressing praise for your passion, humour and talent as a speaker." M Rae OBE FRCN
UCLan: 2005 1st Women's Football Conference

UCLan: Mitchell and Kenyon Cinema: 2008 "Gail's presentation was informative, entertaining and comprehensive and delivered to a very high standard of professionalism."

The Women's Institute - Lancashire Federations. "Gail's enthusiasm was so obvious throughout her presentation that everyone felt as if they had met the players!" 2009 "Very interesting and moving. One of the best talks we have had in ages!" 2010-2012. Ansdell WI - "We have have many really good presentations, but I can honestly say that I've never heard the applause go on for so long. Such an inspirational story." Burnley U3A - "One of the best speakers we have had" 2018

TELEVISION AND RADIO APPEARANCES:

First Sex Documentary, Channel 4, 1994

Up Front, Granada TV 1997

Woman's Hour - BBC Radio 4, 1997

Hairnets to Goalnets - BBC Radio 4

Gloria Huniford's Open House - Channel 5: "Gloria was delighted that you agreed to join her on the show and sends a personal thank you. Thank you for your sterling contribution to our programme and giving 'Open House' the benefit of your experience and professionalism".

Revealing Secrets - Channel 4 2001

Nation on Film - BBC 2 2007

ABC Radio National, Australia: 2009

The One Show - BBC 1 2011 with Gabby Logan- "The interview you gave was lovely. We could not have made the film without all your knowledge and support". Kate Thomas, Producer/Director

Sport and the British - BBC Radio 4 2012

NHK Cosmomedia - Japan 2014

Granada TV WW1 Homefront - 2014

BBC Radio Lancashire WW1 - 2014

Antiques Road Trip with Christina Trevenion, BBC 1 - 2015

Suffragettes Forever BBC 2 with Amanda Vickery - 2015

Football - A Brief History with Alfie Allen - 2017

Liverpool FC Women - AVON Big Reveal 2017, You can view the video below.

When Football Banned Women, Channel 4, with Clare Balding - 2017

Great British Railway Journeys, BBC 2, with Michael Portillo - 2019

Women in Football Documentary - 2019, You can view the video below.

North West Tonight BBC 1 with Jayne McCubbin - 2019

Back in Time for School BBC 2 - 2019

Fearless Women Podcast with Sue Anstiss MBE 2020

Womans Hour Radio 4 with Jane Garvey - 2020

Football Focus BBC 1 - 2021

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Hello, my name is Gail Newsham, welcome to my website where you will find the most accurate and factual information regarding the Dick, Kerr Ladies, who are arguably the most important team in the history of women's football, and this is my tribute to them.

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In terms of my evaluation and reviewing of my work, I think there is much to be improved, hopefully, that can be achieved within my FMP by using summary sheets to make sure that my own opinion is clear throughout and that I have a continuous voice that subtly narrates the project through my research and testing. However, generally I think this is definitely one of my weaker points and it is something that I aim to really push myself to do more of.

I think it will clarify what I do next and help me to progress my project in a more clear and thorough way.

I think particularly there is a need to focus on recording on research sheets, tutor feedback and peer feedback so that I can integrate it with my own thought processes and reflections in order to create a clearer line of reasoning. Although I always record tutor feedback in my feedback book I need to start inputting these into my research so it clarifies the direction that I go in, I think that it would also help me because it might allow me to visualise what has been said slightly more easily.

Post crits I also need to show how my work develops and how I act on this by again putting these on my sheets, in conjunction with this I also need to aim for a higher quality of finesse for my projects, such as my Family Fortunes project where I utilised the workshop spaces, specifical the book arts. However, I would love to take this further and expand my use of them even more, perhaps by using the monoprinting facilities or embossing workshop, both of which I think will become useful. By doing this hopefully I can gain a more professional standard of finish in which what I am trying to communicate is very clear.

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I think this is something that started off as ignorance and not thinking of women, in terms of periods

but it was still ignored for ages even when it was brought up

genuinely couldn't imagine anything worse than being int he biggest tournament of my life then terrified of I started my period on nation television, unable to focus on what you actually need to pics on

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Wimbledon's famously strict rules requiring all-white clothing for its players now comes with an exception: female players can wear dark-colored undershorts beneath their skirts or shorts.

The change comes after current and former players described the stress of having to wear an all-white ensemble at the tennis tournament while on their menstrual periods.

The organizers of Wimbledon said the new rule follows discussions with the Women's Tennis Association, clothing manufacturers and medical teams.

"This means that from next year, women and girls competing at The Championships will have the option of wearing coloured undershorts if they choose," Sally Bolton, chief executive of the All England Club, said in a statement. "It is our hope that this rule adjustment will help players focus purely on their performance by relieving a potential source of anxiety."

Wimbledon's dress code dictates that "white does not include off white or cream" and "a single trim of colour around the neckline and around the cuff of the sleeves is acceptable but must be no wider than one centimetre."

Now an asterisk has been added to the rules, permitting female players to "wear solid, mid/dark-coloured undershorts provided they are no longer than their shorts or skirt."

The Grand Slam rulebook states that "clean and customarily acceptable tennis attire shall be worn as determined by each respective Grand Slam Tournament."

The other Grand Slams are far more liberal than Wimbledon in their assessment of acceptable tennis attire. Players at the U.S. Open, for example, often wear bright and expressive outfits.

The menstruation issue had been raised repeatedly by players and others in recent months.

Former Puerto Rican player Monica Puig tweeted in May about "the mental stress of having to wear all white at Wimbledon and praying not to have your period during those two weeks," in addition to how a period can affect a player's performance.

Australian player Daria Saville said she had altered her period specifically because of the tournament's dress code. "I myself had to skip my period around Wimbledon for the reason that I didn't want to worry about bleeding through, as we already have enough other stress," she told The Daily Aus.

"Imagine being a swimmer or a ballet dancer," she added. "Sometimes it just sucks to be a girl."

Likewise, British player Heather Watson told the BBC that she had gone on birth control pills to change her cycle so she wouldn't have her period during Wimbledon - both for fear of bleeding through her whites, and because of the cramping, bloating and fatigue that are typical period symptoms.

At July's Wimbledon tournament, a group of protestors wore red undershorts underneath white skirts, holding signs emblazoned with messages including "About Bloody Time."

Somewhat ironically, the rules about white clothing initially began as a measure to prevent sweat stains from showing on colored clothing.

While the issue may have only been discussed publicly in the last few years, the fear of bleeding onto one's tennis whites is nothing new.

"My generation, we always worried because we wore all white all the time," tennis legend Billie Jean King said in a recent interview with CNN. "And it's what you wear underneath that's important for your menstrual period."

"We're always checking whether we're showing. You get tense about it because the first thing we are is entertainers, and you want whatever you wear to look immaculate, look great. We're entertainers. We're bringing it to the people," King said.

Wimbledon's new apparel rules will come into effect in July at the 136th staging of the tournament.

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Wimbledon will allow women to wear colored undershorts, in nod to period concerns

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The tournament will make an exception to its strict all-white clothing rules, after female players described altering their menstrual cycles to not stress about leaking onto their tennis whites.

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doc on grassroots football in London

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Exhibition showing the visibility of female football

Original Version - 2015

Curatorship and texts | Female Football Work Group: Suzana Cardoso, Diego Sales, José Rodrigues Neto, Laís de Oliveira Araújo, Tatiane de Oliveira, Daniel Magnanelli, Aira Bonfim, Camila Aderaldo, Julia Terin e Pedro Sant'Anna
Research | Aira Bonfim, Camila Aderaldo e Suzana Cardoso.
Google Edtion | Aira Bonfim, Julia Terin, Pedro Sant'Anna e Camila Aderaldo
Text Revision | Daniela Alfonsi e Camila Aderaldo
Video Edition | Aira Bonfim
Participant Educators | Bruna Colluci, Claudia Stocco, Ingrid Ricetto, Leonardo Catella

Reviewed Version - 2018

Coordination | Camila Aderaldo e Aira Bonfim
Adaptation, google edition and translation | Ana Letícia de Fiori

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Celebrating Women in Brazilian Football - Google Arts & Culture

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Exhibition showing the visibility of female football Original Version - 2015 Curatorship and texts | Female Football Work Group: Suzana Cardoso, Diego Sales, José Rodrigues Neto, Laís de Oliveira Araújo, Tatiane de Oliveira, Daniel Magnanelli, Aira Bonfim, Camila Aderaldo, Julia Terin e Pedro Sant'Anna Research | Aira Bonfim, Camila Aderaldo e Suzana Cardoso.

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women are faster than me over longer distances 196 miles

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By Jason Koop,
Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning

In December, a rather provocative e-mail came through my imbox and perked my interest. The kind of e-mail that makes your eyes bulge like saucers, sweat a bit under your collar and feel guilty for having read the contents within. I'm pretty sure my heart rate spiked into the 150's and the resulting training effect was equivalent to a fast 5k. As I opened the attachment, my jaw dropped. I couldn't look away from the images before my eyes. It was mesmerizing, seductive and confusing all at the same time.

OK, pull your collective heads out of the gutter. The title of the e-mail I was referring to was ' Women as Fast as Men in Ultras- An Exclusive Study ' and the salacious content within was chock full of charts, graphs and figures explaining race trends in the ultramarathon world. So, I dove right in analyzed the data for myself, put my coaching hat on and got the research team on the phone for a quick chat.

How we got here

Before I dive into the study itself, a bit of background is in order. The report was produced by RunRepeat, a website that reviews and sells athletic shoes. As part of their marketing efforts, they analyze data and trends, then publish reports on those trends in an effort to drive traffic to their website. Oftentimes, the reports have some eye-grabbing headline such as ' Aussies have never been slower' (sorry, mate) or ' Dog Race Database' (who doesn't love puppies?). There are even some, shall we say, more attention grabbing titles that would even cause Dr. Ruth to blush... I can't blame them. As they say, sex sells and if you are going to drive web traffic with normally boring-as-heck data, you gotta use all the tools you have! In any case, normally I would take a report like this with a big, cheeky grain of salt and file it in the 'interesting but not reliable' category. However, all of the intentionally stimulating headlines aside, the 'state of the sport' articles produced by RunRepeat in the running and ultrarunning space warrant some attention.

To get to brass tacks, the research team collaborated with the International Ultrarunning Association (IAU) and analyzed 23 years of race data consisting of 5,010,730 results from 15,451 ultra running events. You read that right! That's a lot of ultramarathon race data to chew through. While the IAU data certainly does not encompass all of the ultrarunning events worldwide, they feel like they captured about 85% of all of the ultrarunning events from the last 23 years. It's enormous data set, certainly unique in its worldwide comprehensiveness and one worthy of pulling some trends from.

Many of these trends are quite fascinating. But the top-line, men vs. women is the attention grabber and worth some discussion.

With that as a background, let's dive into the title headline.

Women are faster than men in distances over 195 miles

According to data compiled by Ultrarunning Magazine, every year around 30 ultramarathons in North America will be won outright by women. Those performances are outstanding and tend to be more likely the longer the distance of the event. For example, earlier this year, Maggie Guterl outright won Big Dog's Backyard Ultra in an astonishing 250-mile performance, a result which in many people's minds was the singular best female performance of all of 2019. Similarly, in 2017 Courtney Dauwalter outright won the Moab 240, crushing the entire field by an incredible 9 hours. And now comes this statistical analysis indicating that after a certain distance (195 miles to be exact) women as a whole will outperform men.

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So, is there a distance where women will start outperforming men? The short answer is no, but that's a confusing response given the aforementioned examples. Once again, a little history is in order...

Women outperforming men in ultrarunning has been theorized since at least the mid 90's. In part, the theory has been fueled by studies like this 1997 study co-authored by the esteemed Tim Noakes that compared 56k and 90k race times between similarly matched men and women and found that the women fatigued less as the distance increased. When studies and performances like this come to light, they get picked up by mainstream media and the following run of show ensues:

First, the study is published or performance happens. No one really outside of the small ultrarunning world really hears about it. Shortly thereafter, a lay article is written where they interview some performance expert. That expert opines on how it's possible that women will eventually outperform men. That argument usually has four themes:

Women's hormones are more conducive to ultradistance events

The fact that women metabolize fat better gives them an advantage

Women are tougher

Here are other races that have been won by women outright

All of these have some validity to them, by the way. Finally, everyone jumps on the bandwagon and forgets that very, very few races are won outright by women (the 30 races won by women referenced earlier represent less than 1.5% of the total races in north America. Though, it should be noted that Ultrarunning Magazine only reports this for races with over 50 competitors). The release of the RunRepeat data set will follow a similar run of show ( oops, already did).

What the data actually means

What the data actually means is that after 195 miles the average pace of all women competing is better than the average pace of all the men competing. Why is this the case? Math and demographics (not physiology and toughness). In any athletic user group, the early adopters are also higher performers. Take the people who pioneered skateboarding, or adventure racing as an example. Those early adopters were good at the sport they were trying to push the boundaries. As a sport becomes more and more popular, the number of non-elites grows much faster than the number of elites. Therefore, even though the best times and performances improve (by way of a course or world record) the average times get worse. Ultrarunning is no different.

As more and more people enter into ultrarunning, the average times get slower (as the RunRepeat study also points out). As more and more women enter into longer distances, the average pace will get slower and will likely do so in a quick fashion (in the most oxymoronic sentence of this particular post) because the denominator in the equation (the total number of female runners) is small. The research team at RunRepeat asserted this on my call with them. And, the data that they have previously produced in the marathon distance backs this up. When you add runners to the group, the average times get slower.

What this means for the average ultrarunner

As much as I love a hero story, and as excited as I get when women win races outright (they are phenomenal performances), don't buy into the hype. Ten years from now, we'll be having this whole conversation all over again at a longer distance. In the 90's it was 100k where women should outperform men. In the 2000s, we bumped that up to 100 miles. Now it's 195 miles. Maybe there actually is a distance at which women consistently outperform men, but I doubt it. Until then, women will occasionally win ultramarathons outright. And those are always amazing performances (yeah, I'm repeating myself here make the point). But, before we all jump on the bandwagon, we should take a pause and remember the context.

Commence egg throwing. @jasonkoop is my Twitter handle.

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Can Women Outperform Men in Ultramarathons?

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Women occasionally win ultramarathon running races outright, and the longer the race the more likely it seems to be. At what point will women win consistently?

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The Department for Education (DfE) has released a consultation seeking the views of the public on draft guidance to assist schools, and colleges, with their support for gender-questioning children*

FBB strongly opposes the guidance.

We are concerned the trans exclusionary approach of the guidance will further isolate trans young people and increase their risk of ill mental health, social exclusion, and bullying.

We are encouraging everyone to respond and use their voice to join us in calling for it to be re-written. Advice on how to fill it in can be found here.If you only have ten minutes, just answer "no" to every question and respond in detail to questions 41 and 42.
*In our work, we choose to use the terms "transgender", "non-binary" and "gender queer" youth to reflect the preferences of our staff and young people. The government's guidance deliberately omits the terms "trans" and "transgender" to describe young people, which we believe is exclusionary.
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Our vision for society and where the guidance fails

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FBB's vision is a society where every young person has a trusted adult at school through their adolescence.

This guidance risks putting young people who are trans or NBGQ in a position where they have no one they can trust at school. The guidance downplays and misunderstands the challenges that trans and NBGQ youth face at schools. It states that parental consent would be required for a school to respect a child's decision to socially transition (except for in extreme circumstances).

The guidance also proposes that teachers could not respect a child's chosen pronouns without school approval, which could allow them to freely misgender pupils, despite the fact that research shows that using correct pronouns can lead to a 71% reduction in symptoms of depression. #BeeWell also report that transgender young people report significantly higher levels of stress and lower levels of life satisfaction and psychological well being than their cisgender counterparts.

Edurio - England's leading stakeholder feedback platform for schools and multi-academy trusts - recently found that just 22% of NBGQ young people feel they have a trusted adult at school.

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Data from Edurio

If we are to change this worrying statistic, deliberate work must be done to build relationships with trans and NBGQ young people and help them to feel safe at school. FBB's theory of relationships is that safety and trust are built through memorable shared moments and long-term mutual disclosure.

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Safeguarding young people

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Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSiE) is the safeguarding guidance used by schools to protect students. It states clearly that "The fact that a child or a young person may be LGBT is not in itself an inherent risk factor for harm."

However, young people without a trusted adult (such as a supportive parent, teacher or youth worker) with whom to discuss their identity are at significant risk of harm, which is also stated clearly in KCSiE: " risks can be compounded where children who are LGBT lack a trusted adult with whom they can be open."

The guidance compromises teachers who might be this trusted adult. The guidance suggests that information should only be withheld from home if there is " an extreme or exceptional risk to the child " - this is too vague and risks making vulnerable children more isolated.

We are concerned with the idea that teachers cannot act "unilaterally" to respect a child's wishes (names, pronouns, uniform) and cannot act out of step with the school. This sets a terrible precedent for the autonomy that teachers - and importantly, young people - have in schools.

The guidance makes no reference to training resources for teachers and it fails to reflect best practice support for those students who are questioning their gender identity, or trans children who have already transitioned. Crucially, it omits the voices of trans young people sharing how they might better be supported in schools.

The guidance is also vague and contradictory when it comes to sport. Instead of training teachers and schools about how to do mixed sport safely, the guidance causes more divides, strips teachers of autonomy and removes the possibility of connection and relationship-building through sport.

Playing sport is associated with a range of positive outcomes in later life, but vulnerable students are less likely to attend than their peers. Safety should not be an excuse for excluding trans and NBGQ young people from sport. Using football as a test case, The FA says football can be mixed until 16. At 16, when statutory Physical Education no longer applies, young people can join adult inclusive teams, such as Stonewall and TRUK United FC.

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"The aim of this guidance will be to provide practical advice to schools and colleges to help them make decisions in relation to gender-questioning children. The guidance will be non-statutory."

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Thankfully, the guidance will be non-statutory. That means that schools do not have a legal duty to follow it. However, it's still incredibly influential because most multi-academy trusts and local authorities will encourage their schools to align with Government guidance.

To put it in context, non-statutory guidance also exists to help deliver the maths curriculum and advise on the amount of time children spend at school across the school week. Its influence reaches far beyond its legal standing.

A more empathetic approach is required and this needs to be supported by additional training and support for schools. Teachers and schools are already stretched, and the government has missed an opportunity to upskill schools and offer best practice guidance on how to support some of the most vulnerable young people. This guidance will make life harder for trans and NBGQ young people across the country and their voices have been ignored.

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To highlight our opposition to this rhetoric and to call on the Government to do more to support trans youth, we have signed a statement produced by the coalition campaigning for LGBTQ+ rights - co-produced by Mermaids, LGBT Foundation, Stonewall, Gendered Intelligence and Trans Learning Partnership. The statement outlines the dangers of the guidance in its current form. We have joined a united call for the government to withdraw this draft guidance and rethink their approach so as to actually support LGBT+ students.

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The Department for Education (DfE) has released a consultation seeking the views of the public on draft guidance to assist schools, and colleges, with their support for gender-questioning children* FBB strongly opposes the guidance. We are concerned the trans exclusionary approach of the guidance will further isolate trans young people and increase their risk of ill mental health, social exclusion, and bullying.

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Orange - WoMen's Football / The Bleues' Highlights (France women's football team World Cup 2023 ad)

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Dozens of small-scale T-shirt manufacturers and football fans are stepping into a Nike own goal-shaped hole after the company again refused to produce a replica England goalkeeper shirt after England's best finish at a Women's World Cup.

Nike refused to change tack following England's 1-0 defeat to Spain on Sunday, even as Mary Earps saved a penalty and was crowned goalkeeper of the tournament. The company would not commit to producing the shirt, saying only that they were "working towards solutions for future tournaments".

It comes after ratings figures revealed the final was one of the most watched British broadcasts of the year, with the UK television audience peaking at 14.8 million viewers. The true figure is likely to be significantly higher as the figure does not include people watching streams on their laptops or mobile phones or in communal spaces.

Calls for the Lionesses to be recognised with honours, led by the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, intensified on Monday. A spokesperson at Downing Street said that while the decision rested with the honours committee, "no one is in any doubt about what an inspiration they have been and that they've represented this country incredibly well".

Controversy has raged around Nike's decision not to produce a replica England goalkeeper shirt, with the England No 1 describing the omission as "hugely hurtful", while the former England men's goalkeeper David Seaman was among the names calling for the decision to be reversed.

But after a performance that saw Earps's passionate reaction on saving the penalty launch a thousand memes, some fans addressed the lack of replica shirts using DIY methods. The BBC Radio 6 Music DJ Mary Anne Hobbs posted a picture of herself on social media on Monday wearing a customised T-shirt featuring Earps's name. "MARY EARPS @maryearps027 such a powerful inspiration to us all.. love you so much i made my own shirt..", she wrote.

Explaining that she was a devotee of the woman fans have taken to calling Mary, Queen of Stops, Hobbs said: "Mary's passion, fury, absolute devotion to her game is such a powerful inspiration. I customised my favourite T-shirt because Mary Earps is a queen in my world."

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Other smaller retailers have moved into the space vacated by Nike. Foudys - which calls itself "the first retailer dedicated to the fans and players of women's football" - is selling a T-shirt for £20 with the slogan "This is my keeper shirt" against the pattern of the Earps player shirt.

A football illustrator, Holly Collins, who produces illustrations and T-shirts for her company HollaaaaFC, decided to make a T-shirt after the Colombia game. "I had been thinking about it since the start of the tournament. There was obviously a lot of noise online about there being a lack of a Mary Earps shirt available to buy," she said. "So I thought, I'm going to design one that I would want to wear, mixing streetwear style with football fashion." The shirt, which states "Number one, second to none" above "Mearps" with the words "Safe hands - safe heart. Mary, Queen of Shots" below it has seen a rise in sales, even after the defeat.

In the last 24 hours more than 10,000 people have signed a petition launched by a 16-year-old football fan on Change.org, calling on the sportswear giant to change its mind and produce the shirt, taking the total signatories to more than 73,000.

Emmy Somauroo said she was "shocked and upset" when she couldn't buy an Earps replica shirt, adding that the company should have changed its decision. "Mary is such an inspiration to me," said the teenager. "I think on Sunday she showed the world, and Nike, who she is and she's made the whole country so unbelievably proud of her."

Mary Earps (left) with Emmy Somauroo, who launched an online petition calling on Nike to produce a replica shirt.

But Earps may take some solace that her own T-shirts, launched through her clothing range, MAE27, as a result of the scandal, had completely sold out even before the starting whistle of the final.

The keeper started selling two of her own T-shirts - one of them stating "Be unapologetically yourself" - in response to failing to get the response she hoped for from Nike after "fighting behind closed doors", she revealed in an interview with the Guardian. The phrase comes from the acclaimed speech Earps made when accepting Fifa's award for best women's goalkeeper in the world in February.

"Sometimes success looks like this, collecting trophies," she said at the ceremony. "Sometimes it's just waking up and putting one foot in front of another. There's only one of you in the world, and that's more than good enough. Be unapologetically yourself."

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Small retailers and fans step in as Nike refuses to make replica Mary Earps shirt

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England No 1 crowned goalkeeper of the tournament after 1-0 defeat in final watched by 14.8m people in UK

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"Lisa Lyon, 1982" by Robert Mapplethorpe. (Copyright Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission.)
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Lisa Lyon was a bodybuilding pioneer, a onetime dancer and competitive sword-fighter who, at 26, became the first winner of the Women's World Pro Bodybuilding Championship. She stood only 5-foot-3 and weighed 105 pounds, but by the time she claimed the title in 1979 she could dead lift 265 pounds and hoist a man into the air - even if that man happened to be bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger, "The Austrian Oak," who was photographed sitting on her shoulders and flexing as they both smiled for the camera.

Ms. Lyon would become one of the world's most famous female bodybuilders, although she considered herself less an athlete than an artist. She turned her body into a living sculpture while performing at art galleries and museums, and while posing for photographers including Marcus Leatherdale, Helmut Newton and her friend Robert Mapplethorpe.

Through her pictures and performances, she said, she hoped to champion a strong yet graceful new standard of beauty, one in which a woman's body was "neither masculine nor feminine, but feline."

Ms. Lyon, who died Sept. 8 at 70, never entered another bodybuilding competition after winning her world title. But for a few years in the early 1980s, she was an eloquent and inescapable spokeswoman for the sport, helping to demonstrate that weightlifting was for women, not just men.

She served as a bodybuilding commentator for NBC, was interviewed by talk-show hosts Merv Griffin and Phil Donahue, performed in Paris, Munich and Stockholm, and was featured in magazines including Vogue and Esquire.

She also posed for Playboy in 1980, later telling The Washington Post that she had grown tired of appearing in muscle magazines and wanted to introduce Playboy's readers to a different kind of femininity.

"In the '50s you had women like Marilyn Monroe who were strictly sex objects," she said. "In the '60s you had Twiggy, who started the undernourished, androgynous style. In the '70s there was Farrah [Fawcett]. Now, in the '80s, health is a reality. Women are building up their bodies without sacrificing beauty or femininity."

Ms. Lyon had taken up bodybuilding in the mid-1970s, intending to improve her upper-body strength after a few years competing in kendo, the Japanese martial art, while studying at the University of California at Los Angeles.

"She liked to pursue things nobody else pursued," said her sister, Duffy Hurwin. "You didn't hear about a lot of women kendo sword-fighters, and you certainly didn't hear about women bodybuilders. Anything that wasn't conventional for women appealed to her."

Her inspiration was Schwarzenegger, who would later elevate the sport's popularity as a star of the documentary "Pumping Iron," and who had recently appeared in the 1976 film "Stay Hungry," directed by her friend Bob Rafelson. A meeting with Schwarzenegger led Ms. Lyon to Gold's Gym, the center of the American bodybuilding scene (the gym was then located in Santa Monica, Calif.), where she began working out six days a week.

"A lot of the men bodybuilders there resented being invaded by a woman," she told The Post in 1981. "They thought I'd be in the way, and they thought I wasn't serious. Some, I'm sure, thought I was there to pick up guys, not weights. And some just wanted to watch me in a sexual way."

But in time "they became very helpful," she added, if a little jealous when photographers and television crews arrived to document her workouts.

Ms. Lyon made her public debut in 1978, at a Los Angeles exhibition alongside bodybuilder Tony Pearson, and a year later became a "demi-celebrity," as she put it, through her victory at the inaugural women's bodybuilding competition.

While many of her peers had bulky physiques with pecs and lats that seemed on the verge of bursting, Ms. Lyon's figure was less intimidating. She was more svelte than brawny - comic book artist Frank Miller would later cite her as a visual inspiration for his Marvel Comics character Elektra, an expert assassin - and immediately attracted Mapplethorpe's attention when they met in 1980 at a loft party in Manhattan.

Over the next few years, Mapplethorpe took dozens of black-and-white pictures of Ms. Lyon that appeared in magazines and were collected for a 1983 book, "Lady: Lisa Lyon," with an introduction by author Bruce Chatwin.

The photographs were precisely staged, by turns playful and dramatic, with Ms. Lyon posing in Jamaica, Paris, New York and the Mojave Desert, wearing haute couture or nothing at all. She was a bride, a cowboy, a mermaid on the rocks of Palm Beach, Fla. In one picture she was photographed nude in a throne chair, petting a snake. In others she was dusted in graphite and covered in green clay.

"Mr. Mapplethorpe's best pictures show her in various body-building poses, her torso unadorned and unshackled by any conventions except those of Greek sculpture," wrote New York Times photography critic Andy Grundberg. The photographer, he added, seemed intent on capturing the tension "between living inside and living outside of society's norms and values."

Ms. Lyon was more blunt in her assessment. "The pictures are a little hard," she told Chatwin, "like us."

The younger of two children, Lisa Robin Lyon was born in Los Angeles on May 13, 1953. Her father was an oral surgeon, her mother a homemaker.

"My childhood was dark," she said in an interview for the Mapplethorpe book, describing struggles with recurring nightmares that she tried to treat with rituals that included "counting, touching things" and "running round the house three times counterclockwise." She later told Spy magazine that she was "diagnosed as manic" when she was 16, and would attempt to treat the condition with the drug PCP, which can cause hallucinations.

Ms. Lyon studied ballet, flamenco and jazz dance before enrolling at UCLA. She received a bachelor's degree in ethnic arts and interdisciplinary studies in 1974.

Following her success in bodybuilding, she published an instructional book, "Lisa Lyon's Body Magic" (1981), with writer and photographer Douglas Kent Hall. She also acted in a few films, including as a vampire in the horror comedy "Vamp" (1986), with Grace Jones, and worked in Japan, where she became a fixture of advertising campaigns for the Seibu department store.

Ms. Lyon's first, early marriage was to Richard Keeling, an ethnomusicologist who pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the 1975 death of singer-songwriter Tim Buckley. Authorities said that Keeling offered heroin to Buckley, who snorted what he believed to be cocaine and died of an overdose.

That marriage ended in divorce, as did her second, to French singer-songwriter Bernard Lavilliers. In 1986, she met John C. Lilly, an eccentric neuroscientist whose research with isolation tanks and efforts to communicate with dolphins inspired a pair of Hollywood movies, "The Day of the Dolphin" and "Altered States." They had a romantic relationship, and he considered marrying Ms. Lyon, according to Spy, before legally adopting her in 1987.

Ms. Lyon was later married for more than a decade to Alan Deglin, who worked in construction and died in 2020. Ms. Lyon's death - from cancer, at her home in Westlake Village, Calif. - was confirmed by her sister, who is among her immediate survivors.

In 2000, Ms. Lyon was inducted into the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Hall of Fame, which credited her with "elevating bodybuilding to the level of fine art." The sport had transformed her self-image, she once told the Baltimore Sun.

"I felt stronger, less like a victim," she said. "I had swallowed the '50s image of a woman being something frail and delicate, of needing to be protected. I created my own image in the '70s. It is an image of strength and survival."

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Lisa Lyon, pioneering bodybuilder and performance artist, dies at 70

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Lisa Lyon posed with Arnold Schwarzenegger on her shoulders and was a muse of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.

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A new ad from DDB Group Aotearoa NZ starts with a simple question. "Who has scored the most goals in international football?" While it should warrant a simple answer, Correct the Internet says that a quick internet search will tell you Cristiano Ronaldo scored the most international goals at 118, when in fact it was Christine Sinclair with 190. According to the release, the internet is filled with similar inconsistencies. At the time of publishing, these included answering Bryan Habana and Jonah Lomu for most tries in rugby world cups, when it's actually Portia Woodman, also overlooking Lydia Ko for most goals for USA, and many more besides.

It's this bias that Correct the Internet - a new ad, campaign and online tool - is rallying against, ultimately aiming to overhaul the algorithm and correct as many gender-based inaccuracies as possible. It's even created an online tool that the public can use to notify search engines of their incorrect results whenever they spot one online. While the process of logging and fixing these inaccuracies is relatively simple, the feedback function can be harder to find, particularly at larger search engines. Correct the Internet reframes this small action - logging an edit online - as a larger wave of collective action to empower people to get involved.

"Because the internet has learnt our bias many of its search engine results are inconsistent, often favouring men, and change depending on who is searching," says Correct The Internet founding partner and former New Zealand Football Fern, Rebecca Sowden. Maher Nasser, director of the Outreach Division of the UN's Department of Global Communications adds: "With growing reliance on internet search engines to find information, algorithms assume that human biases, conscious and unconscious, are the natural order of things and elevate results that conform with that. Gender equality starts with recognising the biases and challenges faced by women and girls and campaigns like Correct The Internet are a great way to unmask how the same biases have entered the virtual world."

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This campaign needs your help to correct the gender bias in online sports stats

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According to Correct the Internet, search engines are giving us incorrect answers to sporting stats, often favouring men. DDB NZ shows what we can do to fix things.

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women 6x more likely than men to get all injuries

arsenal lost 4 players in 1 season

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It has been the hottest topic in the women's game - but not for welcome reasons. Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are wreaking havoc within the sport, depriving top competitions, leagues and tournaments of some of the world's best players.

The list of sufferers is long and the issue is far more complex than even medical experts and specialists in the field profess to understand.

Female footballers are living in fear, with the problem being anecdotally described as an 'epidemic'.

The numbers are especially exposing. Football injuries are responsible for nearly half of all ACL reconstructions performed in the UK. They have the highest recovery burden, and account for nearly one-third of all playing time lost due to injury. The psychological load is heavy too.

In just over 12 months the Women's Super League lost - and thankfully regained - Arsenal duo Beth Mead and Viv Miedema, but England captain Leah Williamson remains in rehab, while Chelsea striker Sam Kerr had her season cruelly ended in early January. Another high-profile sufferer whose absence will be keenly felt.

Incidentally, 22-year-old Mia Fishel, signed by Chelsea in the summer from Lyon to act as Kerr's understudy, is on her own comeback journey from an ACL tear sustained in June 2022.

Consultant orthopaedic surgeon Nev Davies paints a bleak picture of a worrying trend among young people in the UK, where a 29-fold increase from two decades ago shows females to be four-to-six times more at risk.

"We are so behind the rest of the world when it comes to injury prevention... it's embarrassing," he says.

While female athletes across the board are more susceptible, a spate in football specific injuries has gathered concerning momentum. Data suggests over 195 elite players have been added to the casualty list in the last 18 months.

To illustrate, between 25 and 30 players - enough for an entire squad - missed the Women's World Cup last summer because of ACL tears.

Thankfully, there is finally an acceptance that urgent action must be taken.

In December, European football's governing body UEFA announced the introduction of an expert panel on women's health to seek a deeper understanding of ACL injuries and their frequency among female players. About time.

"For 20 years we have known there is an increased ACL injury rate in women and girls," Dr Kate Jackson, a renowned sports and exercise medicine specialist explained when quizzed about the clear imbalance. "There is a nuanced gender issue that needs exploring. We don't yet fully understand it."

So, what is causing such disproportionate rates? Why does it matter? And what steps does the sport need to take to address the disparity?

Is football failing women?

The number of female athletes who had their World Cup dreams dashed by ACL ruptures last year was exposing. The list reads like a who's who of elite international talent.

Domestically, as far as WSL clubs were concerned, Arsenal were hardest hit. Jonas Eidevall's side had a total of four players sidelined by ACL tears last season.

Football-focused studies, of which there are few, suggest women are six times more likely to suffer ACL injuries compared to men and 25 per cent less likely to make a full return. At present, 13 WSL players are going through recovery, including Arsenal's Williamson, Man United defender Gabby George and Leicester winger Hannah Cain.

It's important we, as a collective, try and get more done for ACLs and research into it. It is way too common in the women's game. If that ever happened in the men's game a lot more would have been done sooner.
Arsenal winger Beth Mead, speaking in March 2023

Associate professor of medicine at the University of British Columbia, Jackie Whittaker, has been involved in the research process and believes organisations like FIFA or global players union FIFPRO need to fund a study such as the one NBA and General Electric (who sell ultrasound machines) commissioned back in 2015, to investigate the commonality of tendon injuries in basketball.

The inquiry was designed to help inform and prevent further injury outbreaks.

"Sometimes you can get private industry saying, 'we feel this is really important'. I think girls speaking out might increase the likelihood of that happening [in football]," Whittaker said.

FIFPRO has recently reported that increased workload, travel and insufficient rest have all contributed to higher injury rates more broadly. Makes sense, but acknowledgment and admission can only be considered phase one.

ACLs in particular continue to perplex experts - and so solving the problem remains a moving target. Physiological, biomechanical and environmental factors are all at play and range from body types, to how an athlete runs and jumps, to what quality of surface they play on - and far beyond.

Until recently, attempting to explain the impact of those factors and how they correlate has been scattergun, but perceptions are slowly changing. Stakeholders are finally taking a stand and campaigning for an in-depth look at one of modern football's greatest failings.

Cause and effect - from far and wide

Research looking at the impact of gender bias on injury has highlighted societal attitudes to female sports participation may be affecting injury risk. Dr Jackson says "attitudes to girls being physically active, accessibility and opportunity" are all consistent themes.

Another factor is muscle strength imbalances which are more noticeable in females. This may be why structured injury prevention warm-ups that include strength and balance are so effective at reducing the risk of ACL injury in young girls. At an older age, anatomical differences in women and changing hormones during menstrual cycles have also been mooted as variable factors.

Additional theories point to women playing in boots designed for men. Female runners don't compete in men's trainers: why should footballers accept any different?

A recent report coordinated by the European Club Association revealed as many as 82 per cent of female players surveyed experience high levels of discomfort wearing football boots. Square pegs in round holes.

Others point towards the explosion in popularity of the women's game and the growth in schedule as a result. Frequency of fixtures has increased several fold, and, as a result, demands and 'load' on athlete's bodies is harsher; yet, female-specific sports science and access to top strength and conditioning specialists is lagging behind.

Typically, girls have not been exposed to the same elite level of training as early as boys and have not built up the same capacity or base level of strength and endurance, which increases vulnerability.

It's an opinion shared by England and Chelsea forward Fran Kirby. "It's important to get the basic fundamentals really young - there is a difference when it comes to how we [boys and girls] are brought up playing," she exclusively told Sky Sports from her London home, having sat out of last summer's World Cup after undergoing knee surgery.

"The boys are doing gym work and learning basic running mechanics at the age of six," she continued. "When I was coaching at Reading the grassroots girls couldn't even access a gym. The most important thing is teaching young girls the basic mechanics of being a footballer and being a sportsperson."

'Women are considered little men'

"There is a huge knowledge gap in the UK about the importance of injury prevention programmes... it's embarrassing how far behind we are," is the opinion of orthopaedic surgeon Davies, speaking about injury prevention.

His concerns are shared.

Sports medicine specialist and former Chelsea doctor Eva Carneiro is one of few females to have held a senior medical position at a Premier League club, and believes a lack of funding and knowledge is negatively impacting female athletes.

"Gender is still an issue in football. You've got limited funding in the women's game and you don't have very experienced medical teams," she exclusively told Sky Sports. "Doctors are expensive because they are liable for every decision they make. It's about information sharing, governance and understanding medical decisions. We're not threats - we're actually assets."

On the lack of science surrounding female-specific health issues, she added: "The worse thing is - as a woman and somebody who finds the subject fascinating - 15 years ago we were trained like women are just basically small men. We ignored everything that makes a woman different.

"And yes, I think it's to do with academia and the way we were trained and all that [needing to] shift."

Speaking to Inside the WSL last season, female health specialist Dr Emma Ross shared similar fears: "We published a paper over a year ago which showed that, in sport and exercise science research, only six per cent of studies are done exclusively on females. There are a lot of myths out there about menstrual cycle and injury."

Whittaker, a medical professor at UBC in Vancouver, is subsequently worried about untested speculation and emphasises the dangers of misleading messaging. She said: "I don't want young girls to hear the message that, 'oh, because I have my period, I'm going to tear my ACL'.

"Before we start saying the menstrual cycle or hip width is part of the risk, we need to be absolutely sure that actually is the case."

Sadly, as the women's game has boomed, complimentary scientific advancement and access has been forgotten. The clarion call is for "more targeted research - so a true understanding can be formed," says Dr Jackson.

All the while, the case rate continues to soar.

'The agent of change'

Dr Kat Okholm Kryger, a sports rehabilitation researcher at St Mary's University, is one of few medical practitioners to take an active interest. She has published a series of papers highlighting the lack of progress in developing technology specifically for elite female footballers.

"Generally, across all research in football and sports medicine, the male has been the norm," she told Sky News.

Dr Kryger is indeed an advocate for change. She believes safety and performance of players has been compromised for too long, because footwear and kit are still largely designed for a male physique.

Speaking exclusively to Sky Sports about ACL injuries, Dr Kryger explains the research she has undertaken does not necessarilyreveal "an increase in incident rates (number of injuries per exposure hours)", but rather exposes what she describes as "club clusters", which are "difficult to explain".

Her findings read: "A trend, which is not shown by the large data sets, is club clusters of ACL injuries, i.e. suddenly two to four ACL injuries within a season in a single club. This trend has been difficult to study and explain, but it is seen regularly in both the men's and women's game."

Arsenal were one of the unlucky few last season.

It continues: "The number of ACL injuries seen per 1000 match playing hours ranges from 0.6 to 2.2."

The science points to many ACL injury risk factors for women, which Dr Kryger categorises into 'nature' and 'nurture'. "There are at least 30 reasons that have been discussed in literature," she points out.

Discussed, but not addressed.

She references "body shape, hip width and the menstrual cycle" are all commonly suggested as contributing factors, but as yet, there exists "no good evidence" of the role they play, despite all being used as arbitrary excuses for why "women aren't designed to play football."

Nurture, in Dr Kryger's explanation, relates to environmental factors including "less access to top quality pitches, ill-fitting boots, less access/use of gyms to aid injury prevention and less engagement with injury prevention training."

She believes all aspects "could and should be changed". Now it's up to the footballing powers to listen and act.

The technology causing a positive stir
IDA: The boot revolution
Consider one issue from the realm of Dr Kryger's 'nurture' argument: football boots. Footwear has, up until very recently, always been modelled on a white male.

Dr Kryger has undertaken a project to highlight the fundamental differences between a female and a male foot by using 3D scanning to map size, shape, and variations in heel and arch depth.

And she has allies. Sky Sports spoke exclusively to Laura Youngson, co-founder of IDA, a company who specialise in "high performance, comfortable footwear for female athletes."

Youngson explained how "staggering" she found it that "women at the very top of the game" are still competing in footwear designed for the opposite sex.

She expanded: "It's simple, we need to create footwear with female biomechanics at the heart. Take running as a sport, in terms of a case study, women's specific running shoes have been available for years.

"Our ethos is this: functionally, can we improve performance by providing a product that is tailored? But also, emotionally, do girls feel like they exist if they walk into a shop but only have a choice of male shoes?"

Youngson emphasised the work Dr Kryger has done as central to her company's philosophy, and the science behind providing "greater choice and access to the best equipment".

Nike's Lunar coming out has been great for us, because it educates the consumer that women's boots are necessary. That shoe, fundamentally, is designed for men and women though. It does not address the issue at its core.
Laura Youngson, co-founder of IDA

She added: "Our focus has been on the fact women tend to have narrower heels and a wider toe area. A lot of female players suffer from sore little toes from pushing feet into boots that aren't suited to their shape.

"Data needs to be a baseline. Dr Kryger's research is part of why I set up the company. Women are in pain and not saying anything because they're happy getting a free pair of boots [from commercial sponsors], but that isn't aiding bodies or performance.

"If you take the ACL, we know surfaces and boots, and we believe there are adjustments that can be made to reduce the risk factor. Structural changes are as simple as having boots tailored to different surfaces."

The encouraging news is quantifiable progress is also being made in the tech sector, although access to such innovation is not necessarily commonplace in the women's game.

"We automate the process of capturing sports on video," Patrik Olsson, CEO of video recording and analysis tool Spiideo tells Sky Sports. "We capture the game or training from multiple angles in very high resolution."

This data pool, severely lacking in the women's game, could be richly enhanced if commissioned adequately - it's got the power to be a game-changer.

Spiideo is used to monitor and tag distance, speed, frequency of impact, and all the different types of transition that may precede an injury incident. "It's the accumulation of all these things that will lead to the prevention of future injuries," Olsson believes.

He continues: "Fundamentally, we keep track of players, and the ball, and the movements around the pitch. It's basically digitising the game.

"There will be lots more insights coming automatically from the data - this player is getting tired, maybe we should make a substitution, or the intensity of the game is changing, which calls for something different.

"In future we will be able to see up close what is happening from a player's point of view when an injury occurs."

What about duty of care?

Individual clubs in the UK and US are taking matters into their own hands but uptake has been slow. Chelsea and Washington Spirit in the NWSL have both begun tracing data around players' menstrual cycles.

Dawn Scott, director of performance, medical and innovation at Washington Spirit, says the purpose is to mitigate symptoms and help individuals train more efficiently.

Chelsea, however, are specifically targeting a reduction in soft tissue injuries, using a bespoke app to track player cycles. Speaking to chelseafc.com, manager Emma Hayes explained: "The starting point is that we are women and we go through something very different to men on a monthly basis.

"We have to have a better understanding of that because our education failed us at school: we didn't get taught about our reproductive systems. It comes from a place of wanting to know more about ourselves and understanding how we can improve our performance."

Sky Sports also approached a variety of physios currently working within WSL clubs, and they came to a similar conclusion: "medical provision is improving but not at a fast enough rate."

They jointly agreed there are so many "intrinsic and extrinsic" factors affecting the ability of an ACL to perform its duty, that attempting to form rationale around one cause, or even one individual, would be impossible.

When asked if they would welcome more tailored research to guide their decision-making - helping both injury prevention and injury recovery methods - the overwhelming answer was "yes".

Conclusion and next steps

Players have spoken. Medical experts are clear. Coaches and managers agree. Football is depriving its female players of fair and proper treatment. The institution and infrastructure, which was built to support men throughout time, is ultimately failing the women's game - something the accelerated growth of women's football does not legislate for.

There is, however, light at the end of the tunnel. The industry is having to sit up and listen and recommendations for change are finally trickling into the mainstream.

Chair of a new independent women's domestic football review, Karen Carney, has published a series of improvement proposals at the behest of the UK government.

Among the key reforms in the review, published a week before the start of the Women's World Cup, was the introduction of 'minimum standards' across all areas of the game. "Do I want players going on the NHS (to get treatment for injuries)? No," Carney explained.

After speaking with players past and present, teammates and opposition, Carney also revealed many felt like "second class citizens". They described systemic treatment as an "afterthought".

The report calls for a new unit, funded by the FA, to research issues affecting female footballers, such as the prevalence of ACL injuries - something that has never existed in the UK before.

Former Chelsea doctor Carneiro believes it can be an "exciting time" for the women's game, but only "if the medical profession supports players correctly, for the the first time in history."

Indeed, what began as a bleak recital of historical failings may well blossom into green shoots of advancement.

The pathway isn't necessarily clear - but at least, now, it exists.
For more Future of Women's Football stories, visit Sky Sports.com and the Sky Sports app

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Future of Football: Why ACL injuries have been on rise in women's game - and the technology and solutions to fix it

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Future of Football: How has the term ACL become so synonymous with womens game? What steps will be taken to tackle epidemic? Sky Sports investigates the work being undertaken to avoid a repeat of the last 18 months where an estimated 195 elite players suffered the injury

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Part of a Disney-themed collection, Adidas have released three football kits inspired by popular "Disney princesses" Cinderella, Belle and Mulan.

Adidas x Disney Princesses Football Kits

All three kits follow a same design: all-black base with subtle jacquard stripes and a 'Disney Princess' print on the front.

The Adidas and Disney logos are placed on the right chest while the reflective 'Disney Princess League' patch sits on the left.

Each princess has a distinct colour for the text and shorts. Blue for Cinderella, yellow for Belle and green for Mulan.

The name of the princesses are printed in the back with their silhouettes. The numbers are the year their Disney movies were first released.

What do you think of Adidas' collaboration with Disney? Let us know in the comments.

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3 Adidas Disney Princesses Kits Released

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Part of a Disney-themed collection, Adidas have released three football kits inspired by popular "Disney princesses" Cinderella, Belle and Mulan.

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private school benefits in professional sport 

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private school benefits in professional sport 

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There is such a disparity between state schools and private schools interns of their sporting education. 4 in 10 of the athletes that won medals at 2012 olympics went to private school, not proportional to population.

brings ups more issues with how expensive sports actually is eg classes and camps etc

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The education watchdog, Ofsted, has called on state schools to urgently improve the quality of competitive sport they offer, warning that it was "average at best" in many and that private schools continue to dominate at elite level.

In a report published on Thursday, it urged the government, schools and sports governing bodies to do more to improve the "unacceptable" proportion of state school pupils succeeding at the top level in many major sports.

Ofsted said that in the minority of state schools that took sport seriously, academic performance was improved.

Despite fewer than one in 10 pupils attending fee-paying schools, more than four in 10 of the British athletes who won medals at London 2012 were schooled privately. Alongside the success of state-educated athletes including Jessica Ennis, Mo Farah and Greg Rutherford and cyclist Victoria Pendleton, half the gold medal winners were educated privately, including cyclist Chris Hoy and sailor Ben Ainslie.

Ofsted's research shows that the pattern is repeated in almost every sport outside football. The majority of players in rugby union's Premiership went to fee-paying schools, as did more than a third of those playing county cricket. England rugby captain, Chris Robshaw, was educated at Millfield and cricket captain Alastair Cook attended Bedford school.

"It simply cannot be right that state-educated athletes are so woefully under-represented in our elite sports," said Sir Michael Wilshaw, Her Majesty's chief inspector of schools. "Heads who treat competitive sport with suspicion or as an optional extra are not only denying youngsters the clear dividends that come with encouraging them to compete, they are also cementing the social inequality that holds our nation back."

Ofsted found a correlation between the quality of competitive sport provision and wider academic achievement. It called on schools to expect all pupils to compete in competitive sport and ensure there was provision to meet demand, embed sport in the "school ethos" and foster meaningful links with local and professional sports clubs.

It also said the government should put in place a national strategy to improve the number of athletes making it through to the elite level from state schools.

School sport became a political battleground in the run-up to the London Olympics after the education secretary, Michael Gove, scrapped £162m in annual ringfenced funding for a national network of school sport partnerships. Following a prolonged backlash, the government agreed to replace it with a £150m scheme targeted at primary schools, which gives each one around £12,000 a year to spend on sports coaching or facilities.

The Ofsted report said that too few state schools recognised the wider values that competitive sport could bring. Only 13% of headteachers said they expected all pupils to take part in competitive sport and only four in 10 said they regularly played sport outside school.

While Wilshaw said the achievements of the best state schools showed "large playing fields" were not a prerequisite, the report did little to address the disparity in facilities and coaching between private and state schools.

John Steele, chief executive of the Youth Sport Trust, said the findings highlighted the "worrying inconsistency" in the provision of competitive sport in state schools. "Access to facilities and investment in specialists to deliver sport are key factors in the success of independent schools," he said. "If we are to continue to counter this trend, state schools must develop stronger links with local clubs which can offer support, expertise and, importantly, the facilities for young people to develop and excel."

The report says schools should take care to differentiate their competitive sport offering from physical exercise. But Steele said it was also important that a mix of both competitive sport and non-competitive exercise was offered.

"Schools shouldn't be judged on their competitive school sport provision alone as it is important for them to be able to deliver a balanced programme of high quality PE, alongside adequate opportunities to participate in different sports," said Steele, also a former Rugby Football Union chief executive. "We believe that this balance, young people will not be afforded the best chances in sport or in life."

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Level playing field? Private school pupils still have head start in sports

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Ofsted finds that more must be done to improve the proportion of state school pupils succeeding at the top level in sports

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Nike Supports Women in Its Ads but Not Its Factories, Groups Say (Published 1997)

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Coalition of women’s groups attacks Nike as hypocritical for running new television commercials featuring female athletes, while continuing to pay very low wages to women working in its factories in Indonesia, Vietnam and China (S)

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The significant barriers that WOC face in sport compared to that of their white counter part

seems to be that feminism always positively impacts the rich middle class white women of society before any others

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Women of colour have faced, and continue to face, numerous barriers when it comes to participating in sport. Acknowledging these barriers and seeking ways to overcome these is important to achieve equality in sport, regardless of gender or race.

This post is excerpted from Women and Sport.

Representation

The Women's Sports Foundation's (WSF) 2003 report on female athletes of colour highlighted the presence of racial clustering in five sports (bowling, badminton, basketball and indoor and outdoor track). The inequitable representation of female athletes of colour in certain sports has been attributed to socialisation, inequitable education opportunities, and lack of role models at both the playing level and in athletic leadership positions. For example, approximately 14 percent of head coaches of women's teams at all National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) divisions were women of colour.

The low representation of women of colour as role models and mentors has far-reaching consequences in terms of developing future female players and leaders.

Stereotyping

Stereotypes are based on limited information and are often linked to prejudice and discrimination. Negative stereotypes can influence which sports women choose to participate in and can also inhibit and discourage girls and women from sport participation (Coackley, 2007; Csizma, Witting & Schurr, 1988). Stereotypes can affect how much funding schools and parents provide women (Sabo & Veliz, 2008; Women's Sports Foundation, 2011), as well as how women (as athletes) are characterised and framed in the media (Cunningham, 2011).

Cultural

Religion and gendered cultural norms and expectations inhibit girls and women from different racial and ethnic backgrounds from participating in sport. For example, in many Native American and Hispanic homes, cultural traditions dictate that girls help with family childcare responsibilities after school, thus limiting their opportunities to participate in after-school sport activities (Eyler et al., 1998; Sylvester, 2005). Furthermore, in many Asian countries such as China, Korea and Japan, Confucian beliefs of women's inferiority to men have remained influential, resulting in limited female participation (Jinx, 2003, p.207).

Learn more in Women and Sport.

References

Coackley, J. [2007] Sports in society: Issues and controversies (9th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill

Csizma, K.A, Witting, A.F & Schurr, K.T (1988). Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 10, 62-74.

Cunningham, G.B (2011). Diversity in sport organisations (2nd ed.). Scottsdale, AZ: Holcomb Hathaway.

Eyler, A., Baker, E., Cromer, L., King, A., Brownson, R., & Donatelle, R. (1998). Physical activity and minority women: A qualitative study. Health Education Behaviour, 25, 640-652.

Jinx, D. (2003). Women, sport and society in modern China. London, England: Frank Cass.

Sabo, D., & Veliz, P. (2008). Go out and play: Youth sports in America. East Meadow, NY: Women's Sports Foundation.

Sylvester, M. (2005, March 29). Hispanic girls in sports held back by tradition. USA Today, p. A1.

Women's Sports Foundation (WSF). (2011) Foundation's position on race and sport. East Meadow, NY: Author.

Header image by RF._.studio

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Barriers for women of colour in sport - Human Kinetics Blog

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What barriers exist for women of colour in sport? We discuss in this extracted content from Women and Sport.

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forced to play on pitches that increase chance of injury

forced to play with boots that again don't cater to their specific differences, instead made to us mens boots

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It would be so interesting to see if there is the same culture of football hooliganism in womens football as there is mens

or. perhaps will it develop, or will it not

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"Hooliganism" is the term used broadly to describe disorderly, aggressive and often violent behaviour perpetrated by spectators at sporting events. In the UK, hooliganism is almost exclusively confined to football.

Disorderly behaviour has been common amongst football supporters since the birth of the sport, but it is only really since the 1960s that it began to be perceived as a serious problem.

In the 1980s, hooliganism became indelibly associated with English football supporters. This followed a series of major disturbances at home and abroad, which resulted in a number of deaths. Vigorous efforts by governments and the police since then have done much to reduce the scale of hooliganism.

Today, in contrast to the more or less spontaneous upsurges of violence of the past, gangs of rival fans will frequently arrange to meet at specific locations, using mobile phones or the Internet, before and after matches to fight.

The highest profile English hooliganism problems, tend to occur in relation to international matches and events. And although England has long had one of the worst international reputations for hooliganism, a number of other countries are now experiencing similar and growing problems.

Some of the most significant problems with football violence are now seen in Turkey and Russia. However the problem is spread across all the major football leagues including Spain, Italy, Germany, France, and Holland.

In all these countries, there are gangs of hooligans that share other characteristics, interests and beliefs, that incline them towards violent conduct, including links to far-right organisations. Others, however, are apolitical, and are simply composed of men who enjoy fighting.

The term "hooligan" has a disputed derivation, but it is generally accepted to have begun to appear in London police reports in 1898 in relation to violent street gangs.

History of football hooliganism

1960s and 1970s
Although football hooliganism only rose to widespread public attention in the 1960s, it had been with the sport since its earliest development. In the late 19th Century, concerns were frequently voiced about groups of "roughs" causing trouble at matches by attacking not only opposing supporters, but also players and referees. Sociologists pointed to football's origins in working class Britain as a factor distinguishing it from the majority of sports popular today, and contributing to its links with aggressive and disorderly behaviour.

Although football became more "respectable" in the interwar period, and violence went into decline, levels of disorder and public concern about them rose sharply in the 1960s, in conjunction with a number of other moral panics, relating to new youth cultures and growing racial tensions.

In this context, football stadiums rapidly became identified as public spaces where large scale threatening ritual displays and fights could be staged.

Gangs emerged staking their claims to certain "territories" within football grounds, and strong "tribal" loyalties grew up intermingling gang mentality and support for particular teams. The territorial factor is widely accepted to be the principal reason behind the particular rivalries between neighbouring teams and the susceptibility to violence of derby matches - although other local factors are prominent in some cities (eg sectarianism in Glasgow).

It should be noted that in the 1960s, football violence was considerably worse in many other European countries than in the UK: in the early 1960s, the Football League sought to pull English teams out of European competitions for fear of the threat posed by foreign fans.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, football violence was largely confined to football stadiums, but the trend since then has been increasingly to move outside. In the 1990s, following the introduction of all-seater stadiums, in the wake of the Hillsborough disaster, nearly all large-scale football violence has occurred outside stadiums.

1980s
A watershed in the history of English football hooliganism was the Heysel disaster of 1985, in which a "charge" by Liverpool fans at rival Juventus supporters caused a wall to collapse, resulting in 39 deaths.

English teams were banned from European club competitions until 1990, and during this time, substantial efforts were made by the police to bring the problem under control. Simultaneously, considerable efforts were also made in the 1980s by football clubs themselves to eliminate racism amongst fans.

The Public Order Act 1986 permitted courts to ban supporters from grounds, while the Football Spectators Act 1989 provided for banning convicted hooligans from attending international matches.

The Football (Disorder) Act 1999 changed this from a discretionary power of the courts to a duty to make orders. The Football Disorder Act 2000 abolished the distinction between domestic and international bans.

Recent Years
The Football Offences Act 1991 created specific offences of throwing missiles onto pitches, participating in indecent or racist chanting, and going onto the pitch without lawful authority.

In Scotland, a new law was introduced in March 2012 to deal with the growing problem of threatening behaviour particularly in relation to inciting religious hatred.

The Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012 creates two new offences: Offensive Behaviour related to football and Threatening Communications. The former covers expressing or inciting religious, racial or other forms of hatred and and threatening behaviour at, or on the way to, a regulated football match. The latter relates to threats of serious violence and threats intended to stir up religious hatred sent via the internet or other communications.

Today there remains an issue with football hooliganism.

In the 2019 football season there were a reported 1,771 football banning orders in place on particular individuals, an increase of almost a fifth from the year before.

There were a total of 1,381 football-related arrests. These arrests cover all arrests designated in law under schedule 1 of the Football Spectators Act 1989 (as amended) reported by police to the Football Banning Orders Authority. This includes football specific offences (e.g. throwing missiles in a stadium, pitch encroachment etc..) and a wide range of generic criminal offences committed in connection with a football match. This covers such arrests at any place within a period of 24 hours either side of a match.

In early 2020 a mob of around 20 hooded hooligans from the Men In Black football hooligan 'firm' associated with Manchester United lobbed flares over the gates at the home of the club's Chief Executive, Ed Woodward.

Controversies

The excesses of football hooligans since the 1980s would lead few to defend it as "harmless fun" or a matter of "letting off steam" as it was frequently portrayed in the 1970s. Explanations for the phenomenon are wide and varied.

Moreover, while hooliganism has declined in overall scale, it continues to occur in new and sometimes more alarming forms. In April 2000, Christopher Loftus and Kevin Speight, two Leeds United supporters, were stabbed to death in Istanbul ahead of a UEFA Cup semi-final, in what the coroner's inquest described as "an organised ambush" by Turkish fans.

The extent to which large-scale hooliganism and rioting is now primarily an international phenomenon (and as the absence of crowd trouble at the 1996 World Cup in the USA first suggested, a European phenomenon) raises a new series of problems.

Frequently, incidents result in recriminations against local police forces, which are accused of targeting, provoking or otherwise mistreating foreign fans. The role of local police forces is evidenced by the lack of problems experienced during the Euro 2000 competition, which was co-hosted by the Netherlands and Belgium: the Dutch police, which has strong international links and a criminal intelligence service experienced in monitoring football violence, successfully contained those incidents that did occur in their territory, while the Belgian police fared far worse.

The influence of alcohol on football violence is also a disputed factor. In the past, when hooliganism was more "spontaneous", there was clear evidence that many of those involved were drunk. Efforts to ban alcohol from grounds and to monitor and control behaviour in pubs in the vicinity of grounds has had an impact on this sort of disorder. However, alcohol would appear to have little role to play in the "new" organised football violence.

The media is also invoked as contributing to football violence. Although reports are uniformly critical (apart perhaps, from where blame may appear to lie with foreign fans or police), studies have suggested that the language of war and combat employed by the media in covering football reinforces the aggressive and confrontational perception of the sport.

Headlines such as the Daily Mirror's "Achtung! Surrender!", printed ahead of England's match with Germany in June 1996, have been particularly criticised in this regard.

Ironically, perhaps one of the most significant factors in reducing the problem of hooliganism has been the widening interest in the sport and the influx of huge sums of money. At the same time, however, the influence of improved police technology and methods, and a new unwillingness to tolerate hooliganism as "a bit of a laugh", have pushed it away from the mainstream and into its new, less overt forms.

Quotes

"Our priority is to ensure the safety of all supporters and those who fail to respect this and break the law will be punished. In the last season we have secured banning orders totalling more than 100 years and those who breach them face being jailed "We now have more than 200 people on FBOs across the region and they not only cover games in the UK but overseas." - Inspector Andy Bridgewater, head of the West Midlands Force, Football Taskforce, 2019.

"Most clubs in the Premier League play to full houses and most of their supporters are season-ticket holders. Clubs will ban any person who is arrested or ejected from a stadium and supporters do not misbehave as they would risk losing their season ticket"...""A number of football clubs have also introduced travel clubs for their away matches - clubs will only issue tickets for an away match to supporters who are members of the travel club. Anyone who misbehaves risks losing their travel club membership and therefore the right to a ticket for an away match." - The Football Association - November 2011

"The passing of this Act sends out an important message about the kind of Scotland we want to live in and tells the bigots in no uncertain terms that this behaviour will not be tolerated in a modern Scotland"..."By all means enjoy the banter and passionate support for your football teams, even passionate opposition of other football teams - it is the lifeblood of football. But sectarianism and other expressions of hate are not acceptable and it is time for it to stop. Those engaging in it will face the full force of the law." - Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs, Roseanna Cunningham, commenting on the introduction of the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act - March 2012

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Football Hooliganism - All you need to know - Politics.co.uk

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"Hooliganism" is the term used broadly to describe disorderly, aggressive and often violent behaviour perpetrated by spectators at sporting events. In the UK, hooliganism is almost exclusively confined to football. Disorderly behaviour has been common amongst football supporters since the birth of the sport, but it is only really since the 1960s that it began to be perceived as a serious problem.

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"That's too little to matter" has always felt like an excuse. And a bad one at that, too. I started this blog wanting to rewrite this narrative around little things.Because I feel like nothing is too little to matter. Last week, we saw 91,553 spectators fill the Camp Nou to watch Barcelona Women.

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Lotte Wubben-moy

Stories of battling to play reverberate around our Lionesses changing room: from playing in boys' teams to starting up our own teams, to travelling continents to find adequate girls' coaching, this was an experience many of us have lived and a battle we have all fought. It has shaped us, but we want better for the future.

Long live street football. I'll forever be indebted. Let Girls Play,

Stories of battling to play reverberate around our Lionesses changing room: from playing in boys' teams to starting up our own teams, to travelling continents to find adequate girls' coaching, this was an experience many of us have lived and a battle we have all fought. It has shaped us, but we want better for the future.

Long live street football. I'll forever be indebted. Let Girls Play,

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When I was seven I would walk in the door from school and immediately leave again to go and play football in the street. I would simply shout downstairs to my mum that I was off out to play and fly out the door.

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To celebrate the start of the 2023 World Cup, we spoke to the London-based footballer about her creative childhood, her undying love for Arsenal, and how football and the arts may be more intertwined than you might think.

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World Cup Lioness Lotte Wubben-Moy shares how her love of football and creativity collide

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To celebrate the start of the 2023 World Cup, we spoke to the London-based footballer about her creative childhood, her undying love for Arsenal, and how football and the arts may be more intertwined than you might think.

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Lotte webben- moys sister a visual communicator helped in art directing and creating colouring book for the euros an the world cup

went to Kingston foundation

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Vita W - M 1. The 'Act' of Looking, 2. Afdruk, 3. The 'l' of Beacon Hill, 4. V&A Banner, 5. Brexit Statistics, ...

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A "minute-by-minute" illustrated guide to the 2019 Women's World Cup: The semifinals and the final!

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We teamed up with Minute Books to bring together a squad of 11 illustrators who It's Nice That has commissioned to document every single game of the Women's World Cup through reportage drawings. Make sure you check back after every stage of the World Cup as we'll be updating the article in real time.

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A major new addition to Caricom comes in the form of an insert titled The Caricom Guide to Black Male Mental Health. Separate from the rest of the magazine - a fact which only serves to elevate the feeling of importance encapsulated in this small publication - inside its pages, Kwaaku Dapaah Danquah puts forward accessible techniques for alleviating isolation, anxiety and non-clinical depression. "While the methodology discussed - which includes meditation, therapy, physical outlets and creative outlets - is universal, I thought it important to target it specifically at black men for a few reasons," Calum outlines.

Explaining how Western societies remain hostile towards black men, a fact that can take many forms including "being constantly surveilled and perceived as a threat", Calum tells us: "While this is something we individually and collectively laugh off - because the alternative would be to live in a permanent state of rage - the effects of this are insidious and wearying." He goes on to say: "The statistics bear this out: black men in Britain are 17 times more likely to be diagnosed with a serious mental health condition, six times more likely to be inpatients in mental health units and have the highest rates of PTSD and psychotic disorders." Having experienced the effects himself, and seen it first hand in close friends, Calum felt the inclusion of the guide would "add more weight to a societal shift that's enabling men to open up about their own experiences with mental health, which in turn is working to de-stigmatise the topic".

Ultimately, the latest issue of Caricom is a triumph in using popular culture and sport to challenge societal issues. Featuring a clean, contemporary design aesthetic which invites engagement, it promises football-related content, but delivers so much more. Whether its a Calum's central piece attempting to understand whether untempered blackness is compatible with European identity, A Nation Within a Nation, or Thomas Theodore's piece Blind Idealism which outlines the ways in which big brands direct and influence culture, often at the expense of black people, Caricom provides genuine depth to an often polemic conversation.

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Caricom examines football and fan culture through the lens of the black experience

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The second issue of Caricom magazine is a diverse conversation surrounding the black experience, examined through the lens of football and fan culture.

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Refugees and asylum seekers across the globe tell their stories through disposable cameras in Goal Click’s latest series

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Goal Click Refugees allows the most silenced group of people across society to tell their stories through football.

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govt plans more grassroots women football facilities 

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govt plans more grassroots women football facilities 

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genuinely interested to see if the government will actually implement these new grassroots facilities or if it was just to try and gain popularity after the Euros

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Facilities in places that shaped Lionesses' footballing careers to be named in their honour

Government determined to build future legacy on the back of England's success and increase participation for women and girls

Comes as part of Government's £230 million investment to build or improve 8,000 grassroots football and multi-sport facilities by 2025

Following the Lionesses' incredible success at UEFA Women's EURO 2022, the Culture Secretary has announced that grassroots facilities will be named after the 23 players in and around each of their respective hometowns or places that shaped their footballing careers in honour of their achievements.

As part of the Government's £230 million investment to build or improve 8,000 grassroots football and multi-sport facilities by 2025, alongside the stipulation that they must provide access for women's and girl's football, the move will cement the team's legacy for generations to come. This will support the FA's ambition for the tournament to create half a million extra opportunities for women and girls to play football.

£25 million has already been invested over the last year in grassroots facilities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland with more than 170 facilities delivered by the Football Foundation, in partnership with the Premier League and the FA.

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said:

The Lionesses have enjoyed amazing success in a record breaking tournament - selling out all of their matches, with over half a million fans at games throughout the competition.

Millions of women and girls have been inspired by the team's success and honouring their achievements will mean they leave a lasting impression at grassroots facilities across England.

The Government continues to support the growth of women's and girl's football and driving up participation in the sport.

Working alongside the FA, the Government is determined to achieve their ambition of equal access to football for girls in 90% of schools by 2024, and the £320 million PE and School Sports Premium School Sport and Activity Action Plan will help more girls to take part in sport and physical activity.

During the pandemic £2.9 million in grant funding was provided through the Sport Survival Package to the Women's Super League and FA Women's Championship to cover essential costs and allow the completion of their seasons. This was part of the unprecedented £1 billion package to ensure the survival of the grassroots, professional sport and leisure sectors during the pandemic. The staging of EURO 2022 has also been supported with £4.6 million.

In addition, the Government listed several high profile women's tournaments, including the Women's FIFA World Cup, and the UEFA Women's EUROs as events of national significance. This means they will now have greater opportunity to be shown on free-to-air television, increasing awareness of the women's game, providing greater commercial opportunities and inspiring more young girls to take up the sport.

It has also been announced that a review of the domestic women's game will launch later this summer, to look at how to grow the game at elite and grassroots level. More details will be set out in the coming weeks.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

The Government's grassroots pitches investment was announced in March 2022. The next phase of projects will commence later this year.

The Women's FIFA World Cup, and Women's UEFA EURO tournaments were added to the listed events regime in April 2022.

More details on the £320 million PE and School Sport Premium can be found on gov.uk.

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Government plans to name grassroots football facilities in honour of Lionesses class of Euros 2022

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Facilities in places that shaped Lionesses' footballing careers to be named in their honour

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Over the last few weeks (well, until the rain returned), the UK has felt like a different place. We've been able to see friends and family, whether over a pint, a bbq in the back garden or in the sun down the local park. It's been a time of joy as family members and old friends who've been apart for so long come together once more. It's in this context, as the restrictions on hugging and physical contact have been lifted, that London-based photographer Sebastian Barros' latest series takes place.

As young people have been returning to school and to clubs that fill up their free time, he created a series of portraits in collaboration with Football Beyond Borders (FBB), a social inclusion charity that supports young people from disadvantaged backgrounds who are passionate about football but disengaged at school. By providing long-term, intensive support, built around relationships and young people's passions, they help young people finish school with the skills and grades they need to progress in life. Sebastian spent six weeks visiting various FBB programmes across London, attempting to capture moments of authentic human connection between friends.

The series titled What's Good achieves this and more. For anyone who grew up playing football, it's a nostalgic reminder of the close bond that playing sports with friends creates. We see fist bumps and hugs but also wry smiles and glimpses into the inner workings of several friendships. This plethora of connection is exactly what Sebastian set out to create, he explains, wanting to document how "every friendship has a unique way of reaffirming itself," where some are more tactile others are "more subtle, just quietly being close in someone's presence. I wanted to capture that spectrum."

Sebastian had been in contact with FBB since early March, trying to work out a way they could work together. At the same time, he'd been wanting to shoot something that honed in on themes of connection and reunion, so when FBB reached out with a programme they wanted content for, Sebastian pitched the idea. "They loved it and gave me all the support I needed finding the right programmes and kids for me to shoot," he explains. The first session was during the Easter holidays and was one of the first warm days of the year. "There's something about London and the UK as a whole when the sun's out that instantly lifts everyone's mood, and it was that with the added fact that this was one of the first moments all the kids got to see each other after the long winter months in lockdown," that created such a joyful series of images, Sebastian says. "There was lots of hugging, fist-bumping and jokes between them, it was very special to see and document."

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Sebastian Barros documents authentic moments of adolescent friendship as restrictions lift

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Over the last few weeks (well, until the rain returned), the UK has felt like a different place. We've been able to see friends and family, whether over a pint, a bbq in the back garden or in the sun down the local park.

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LUCY BRONZE & BETH MEAD | LIONESSES | CHICKEN SHOP DATE

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Amelia meets her football heroes | Nike | Lionesses | Football Beyond Borders

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slightly unrelated but still interesting, how life imitates art

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perhaps this collaboration shows a bigger shift into the main stream media

also might show an investment from companies that have an influence at the top of society

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Made to be seen: adidas by Stella McCartney x Arsenal W.F.C.

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incredible

gives such an in depth look into the inverse of a stadium, the spectators

questions: what does a stadium feel when there is no one in it

the one who can't cheer

the one that gasps at every possible moment

the one where they clap for the wrong team

the one where they couldn't get seats in the away section so had to hide their cheers when they're team scored

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‘Spectators’ is an observational animation that inverts the expected focus of a football match, turning attention to those on the periphery. The film investigates social interaction and human behaviour, revealing the diversity of character found among football spectators, which can often become obscured by the mass.


Year of Production: 2013
Running time: 4 minutes
Director: Ross Hogg
Music: 'Dream and Machine' by Sun Dogs

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Official Selection:

09/2013 - Ottawa International Animation Festival, Canada
01/2014 - London Short Film Festival, UK
02/2014 - Manipulate Visual Theatre Festival, UK
02/2014 - Glasgow Film Festival, UK
03/2014 - Holland Animation Film Festival, The Netherlands
04/2014 - Celtic Media Festival, UK
06/2014 - GoNorth Festival, UK
06/2014 - Mo & Friese Children's Short Film Festival Hamburg, Germany
06/2014 - Annecy International Animated Film Festival, France
06/2014 - Edinburgh International Film Festival, UK
09/2014 - Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival, UK
11/2014 - Bradford Animation Festival, UK
11/2014 - London International Animation Festival, UK
02/2015 - Anima Brussels, Belgium
03/2015 - Glasgow Short Film Festival, UK
05/2015 - BCN Sports Film Festival, Spain

Awards:

Winner: BAFTA Scotland New Talent Award for Animation, 2014
Winner: Celtic Media Festival Award for Animation, 2014

Nomination: BAFTA, Best Scottish Animated Short, 2014

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interesting that Sadiq Khan implemented the renaming of this overground line to the lionesses

performative or genuine support?

perhaps both?

can performative support still be helpful?

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The new names have been chosen through engagement with customers, stakeholders, historians, industry experts and local communities

New names, line colours and maps will make it easier for customers to navigate the London Overground and further build ridership, while celebrating London's diverse communities and histories

In a historic re-imagining of London's public transport network, each of London's six overground lines will for the first time ever be given a unique name and line colour. This significant change, which will include a major update to London's world-famous Tube map, will make it easier for customers to navigate London's transport network while also celebrating the city's diverse culture and history.

Research by Transport for London (TfL) has shown that some customers find the London Overground network confusing and would find it easier to navigate if it wasn't one single colour and name.

Each route will be represented by a new line name and colour on the Tube map, on train line diagrams, at stations and on digital journey planning tools, such as TfL Go.  The much-loved orange roundel will continue to be used across the London Overground network.

The new line names are:

The Lioness line: Euston to Watford Junction. The Lioness line, which runs through Wembley, honours the historic achievements and lasting legacy created by the England women's football team that continues to inspire and empower the next generation of women and girls in sport. It will be yellow parallel lines on the map.

The Mildmay line: Stratford to Richmond/Clapham Junction. The Mildmay line, which runs through Dalston, honours the small charitable hospital in Shoreditch that has cared for Londoners over many years, notably its pivotal role in the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s, which made it the valued and respected place it is for the LGBTQ+ community today. It will be blue parallel lines on the map.

The Windrush line: Highbury & Islington to Clapham Junction/New Cross/Crystal Palace/West Croydon. The Windrush line runs through areas with strong ties to Caribbean communities today, such as Dalston Junction, Peckham Rye and West Croydon and honours the Windrush generation who continue to shape and enrich London's cultural and social identity today. It will be red parallel lines on the map.

The Weaver line: Liverpool Street to Cheshunt/Enfield Town/Chingford. The Weaver line runs through Liverpool Street, Spitalfields, Bethnal Green and Hackney - areas of London known for their textile trade, shaped over the centuries by diverse migrant communities and individuals. It will be maroon parallel lines on the map.

The Suffragette line: Gospel Oak to Barking Riverside. The Suffragette line celebrates how the working-class movement in the East End, fought for votes for woman and paved the way for women's rights. The line runs to Barking, home of the longest surviving Suffragette Annie Huggett, who died at 103. It will be green parallel lines on the map.

The Liberty line: Romford to Upminster. The Liberty line celebrates the freedom that is a defining feature of London and references the historical independence of the people of Havering, through which it runs. It will be grey parallel lines on the map.

Stakeholders, customers, historians, industry experts and communities have played a key role in suggesting the new names through independent engagement, which took place ahead of the decision for the final six names. This was key for the Mayor, as London's diverse history and culture have always played a significant role in shaping the city and it was important for the line names, which will be used for years to come, to reflect this.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said: "This is a hugely exciting moment, transforming how we think about London's transport network.

"Giving each of the Overground lines distinct colours and identities will make it simpler and easier for passengers to get around. In re-imagining London's tube map, we are also honouring and celebrating different parts of London's unique local history and culture.

"The new names and colours have been chosen through engagement with passengers, historians and local communities, reflecting the heritage and diversity of our amazing city."

Andy Lord, London's Transport Commissioner, said: "The London Overground is one of the most successful railways in the country and has grown to carry more than three million customers a week. The network, which has grown quite considerably since 2007, is currently shown as a complicated network of orange on route maps.   This can be confusing for customers less familiar with the network and could be a barrier for some wanting to use the London Overground. These new names and line colours will simplify the maps and routes for our customers, and it is hoped it will encourage more people to make the most of our services.  It is also a great way to tell the stories of some important parts of London's cultural diversity."

Mark Bullingham, Chief Executive Officer for The Football Association, said: "We're so pleased to see the Mayor of London and Transport for London recognise the historic achievements of our England women's team with the newly named Lioness line. The line honours the incredible victory in the UEFA Women's EURO in 2022 at Wembley Stadium connected by EE, and the lasting legacy this team is creating in inspiring the next generation."

Geoff Coleman, Chief Executive Officer for Mildmay Mission Hospital, said: "We are deeply honoured that the Mildmay line was chosen as one of the new London Overground lines names in recognition of the work of the dedicated doctors, nurses and support staff at the Mildmay Hospital.  From its humble origins in the 1860s - serving the poorest people of the East End - to its pivotal role during the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 80s and 90s, Mildmay has evolved into an internationally renowned rehab centre, and our dedicated team continues to serve people from across London. More than just tracks and stations, the Mildmay line symbolises a journey of acceptance, love, and belonging - a vibrant thread connecting our collective past, present, and future."

Arthur Torrington CBE, Co-founder and Director of the Windrush Foundation, said: "Windrush Foundation congratulates Transport for London for creating a new interest in travel on the Windrush line as part of the London Overground line naming project. We are reminded of the iconic journey of Empire Windrush and the contributions the Caribbean community have made to the capital over many decades. We are pleased to be recognised this way and look forward to seeing Londoners using the Windrush line."

James Gaselee, Clerk for Worshipful Company of Weavers, said: "We are delighted that one of the newly named London Overground lines will be called the Weaver line in recognition of the silk weaving trade that was centred on Spitalfields; this is not however purely historic as the name of the line will also shine a light on the silk weaving, textile and fashion industries that continue to flourish in London and across the country".

Jemima Olchawski, Chief Executive of the Fawcett Society, said: "We owe so much to the courageous suffragettes and suffragists who campaigned hard and at significant personal cost for women to have the vote and we at Fawcett are delighted that their activism is being recognised by TfL. We hope that commuters on the Suffragette line will pause to think about these amazing women and the work they did to build our democracy. The Fawcett Society, founded by Millicent Fawcett in 1866, and strengthened by our members today is proud to continue this legacy of feminist campaigning for a more equal society. The naming of the Suffragette line is a wonderful way to pay tribute to the women who have gone before us and to inspire the next generation of feminist campaigners, as our work isn't yet done!"

Julie Frost, BID Director for Romford BID, said: "The Romford BID welcome the announcement that the Romford to Upminster branch line now has a new name; the Liberty line. This is a very fitting name as it speaks to our Borough's centuries old status as a Royal Liberty. Back then, this shared status helped to bound our different communities together. What better way to keep alive the spirit of this association than by renaming a key piece of our local transport infrastructure.  We hope passengers will be further encouraged to use the new Liberty line to come and see all the many things we have on offer in Romford".

London Overground first began in 2007 when TfL took over four under-used suburban railway lines. The network has since grown, meaning it has now become represented by a spaghetti of orange on the Tube maps. The Mayor was committed to help simplify this for customers with a new line name and colour for each line, and with names chosen to showcases London's rich history, heritage and diversity.
Notes to Editor

Further information about the London Overground line naming programme is available here - https://tfl.gov.uk/naming-overground

London Overground is today one of the top performing railways carrying more than three million customers a week, with more than 100 miles of railway, serving 113 stations and all nine London fare zones. Since its formation, it has expanded, improved connectivity for millions of people and supported new jobs, homes and economic growth.

TfL will now start the process of rebranding the line names across London's transport network with the full roll out expected to be completed in one go by the end of the year. This includes an updated Tube map, a refreshed London Overground network map and a number of on-network assets including way finding signage at all 113 stations. Additional map will also be updated including the step-free Tube map, Rail & Tube map, large print and black and white Tube map for those with visual impairments.

Careful validation and testing were undertaken to ensure the line colour selection was as inclusive as possible. This included active consideration of those with visual impairments, for example those with colour blindness.  Engagement also took place with TfL's Independent Disability Advisory Group (IDAG), as well as accessibility and inclusion stakeholders through TfL's Inclusive Transport Forum.

Throughout this summer, TfL will engage with Londoners and local communities about the new line names and how they can help tell some of the important stories of London's rich cultural diversity behind the line names.

The independent research and naming process was undertaken by DNCO, a creative agency specialising in place branding and naming. They led a programme of engagement and co-creation, working with customers, creative and community groups, TfL stakeholders and their partners, and industry professionals and staff: providing invaluable insight into London's diverse histories and untold stories. DNCO then used insights and conclusions drawn from this research phase to generate names for each of the lines, which were then taken forward to stakeholder decision making.

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Transport for London | Every Journey Matters

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London's Overground lines to be given new names and colours in historic change to capital's transport network

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London's Overground lines to be given new names and colours in historic change to capital's transport network

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TV Series

2018–2020 2018–2020

TV-MA TV-MA

39m

Highlights the unfailing passion Sunderland residents have for their beloved football club, taking viewers through the highs and lows of SAFC's 2017-18 season in the Championship following i... Read all Highlights the unfailing passion Sunderland residents have for their beloved football club, taking viewers through the highs and lows of SAFC's 2017-18 season in the Championship following its relegation the previous year. Highlights the unfailing passion Sunderland residents have for their beloved football club, taking viewers through the highs and lows of SAFC's 2017-18 season in the Championship following its relegation the previous year.

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53 User reviews

8 Critic reviews

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Episodes14

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Photos11

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10/10

Eye opening.

The best football fly on the wall series I've ever seen. It had everything. It was amazing.

shaunmartin-88147

Dec 16, 2018

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Sunderland ’Til I Die (TV Series 2018–2020) - IMDb

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Sunderland ’Til I Die: With Aiden McGeady, Nick Barnes, George Honeyman, Peter Farrer. Highlights the unfailing passion Sunderland residents have for their beloved football club, taking viewers through the highs and lows of SAFC’s 2017-18 season in the Championship following its relegation the previ…

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Jogging in your park with a pushchair, dancing in your living room, or even stretching to fix a bra all counts a joyful moments of exercise - that's the message our the new This Girl Can campaign for Sport England.

The short films sees a host of women getting fit in their own way that fits around this life, and celebrate those little moments of movement in our everyday lives, with the campaign tag, #FitGotReal.

Director Georgi Banks-Davies, says, "The goal was to show the realities and challenges of everyday exercise for real women. My mates know that I box, because it's 'cool', but they have no idea that when I'm away travelling, I do Davina's 15 min workout in hotel rooms in my knickers, getting carpet burns on my elbows from planking. That's my reality. I want the audience to be inspired to celebrate their own reality, and to feel proud of that."

It's a warming antidote to an industry that can often guilt-trip us to join gym-mania and instead, aims to offset any guilt with a simple message: all activity counts. And if that wasn't warming enough, it's all set to the the glorious vocal stylings of Queen Barbara Streisand's Don't Rain On My Parade. Enjoy it below!

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The new This Girl Can campaign celebrates our tiny moments of movement

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Jogging in your park with a pushchair, dancing in your living room, or even stretching to fix a bra all counts a joyful moments of exercise – that’s the message our the new This Girl Can campaign for Sport England.

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Vivianne miedema talks on mental health, players being overworked and fifes greed

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Vivianne Miedema On FIFA UEFA Greed, Women's World Cup, Panic Attacks & Relationship With Beth Mead

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discussion generally about trans people, with input from anti feminist women

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In this episode, Professor Paul Dolan looks at gender differences. He talks to the men's rights activist, Erin Pizzey, about why she thinks life is tougher for men and boys, especially at school. He's also joined by Caroline Criado Perez, author of "Invisible Women", about how the world is built by men for men. Paul hears from fellow LSE academic Dr Sam Friedman about the intersection between class and gender, and also talks to his friend and colleague Dr Kate Laffan.

A Mother Come Quickly production

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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is it better to be born a girl or a boy?

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‎Duck - Rabbit: Is it better to be born a girl or a boy? on Apple Podcasts

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In this episode, Professor Paul Dolan looks at gender differences. He talks to the men's rights activist, Erin Pizzey, about why she thinks life is tougher for men and boys, especially at school. He's also joined by Caroline Criado Perez, author of "Invisible Women", about how the world is built by...

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Initially, the plan was to create just one variation, but soon the pair found themselves with a whole 'family'. They were inspired by other foundries to create a one page, mini website to present their work, including the trigger that sparked the idea, the process and some interactive experiments. "Because ultimately, our aim was to craft an illustration that wasn't bound by a fixed form, but rather interactive," says Robin. "For us, it had to become a sort of playground to explore the possibilities and to broaden our perspective on illustration." With some help from ChatGPT the pair managed to code four different experiments. "Each one uses a different 'input', like the position of your cursor, a controller, or two sliders that you can adjust to change speed along different axes," says Rob.

The football theme arose for a few reasons. One, the pair don't like drawing faces, and gravitate toward objects, and secondly, football has so many objects and associations connected to it - "making it easy to get a kickstart", says Robin (pun intended). "The repetition, symmetry, and the humour of a moving goal (which makes it difficult to score) led us to choose it as the basic shape; its simple shape allows for ease of movement along various axes." It was also a welcome break for the pair to engage with lighter subject matter, alongside their more weighty editorial commissions on finance, political systems and AI. Along the way they came up with some funny lines to include, like an italic goal and a serif goal.

Considering where the project may travel next, Rob and Robin have big visions. Not only does it work well in a digital domain, but the pair see it having potential in public space, and maybe even cameras and sensors, to create "unexpected interactions". Rob & Robin have found great enjoyment in taking one object and exploring its formal qualities to the greatest lengths; all the while taking a few tips and tricks from their old creative field, proving that the boundaries between mediums might not be as rigid as we may initially assume.

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This football-inspired tool allows you to create interactive illustrations like a variable font

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The creative duo Rob & Robin have transitioned from graphic design to illustration; though they're still borrowing a few tips and tricks from their old trade.

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Gay Gooners is Arsenal Football Club's official supporters' group for LGBT+ fans.

Established in February 2013, they are the first and largest LGBT+ fans group in England, with over a thousand of members in the UK and overseas.

Gay Gooners exists to provide a social group for LGBT+ Arsenal fans, allies and their friends to meet up, provide a safe and welcoming space, and campaign to kick homophobia, biphobia and transphobia out of football.

Gay Gooners holds meet-ups near Emirates Stadium before home fixtures, group trips to away games and organises regular social events. It also represents the club on the annual London Pride parade every summer.

The group's banner is displayed inside Emirates Stadium after being unveiled on the pitch by club legend Pat Rice MBE.

The club are fully behind the group and support their aims to ensure that football is an inclusive and supportive for members of the LGBT+ community.

Gay Gooners' patron and lifelong Arsenal supporter, comedian Matt Lucas says he is "immensely proud of and grateful to the club" for its support for the group and how "young gay fans now feel included by the club in a way my generation never could".

The club works directly with members of the Gay Gooners to tackle anti-LGBT+ discrimination in football by inviting members to take part in inclusion training for staff. Gay Gooners also send a team to the club's annual Arsenal for Everyone tournament at the community hub.

Members receive regular newsletters about forthcoming events and LGBT football news. To find out more, visit their Facebook page or follow them on Twitter.

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Gay Gooners is Arsenal Football Club's official supporters' group for LGBT+ fans. Established in February 2013, they are the first and largest LGBT+ fans group in England, with over a thousand of members in the UK and overseas.

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Arsenal chants: Lyrics & videos to the most popular Gunners songs | Goal.com UK

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Arsenal are one of the biggest and most successful clubs in English football, so it is no surprise that their fans have had plenty to sing about over the years.

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Positive effects and memories invoked by Cloe Lacasse's new chant by Arsenal Women fans

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Celebrating 10 Years of Pride with GayGooners

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This June marks the 10th year of GayGooners proudly supporting Pride month.

To celebrate, we invited members of GayGooners to share their experiences of Pride month, telling us what it means to have been the first football club represented at a Pride march.
Carl Fearn, Co-Chair of GayGooners
My first ever time at a Pride Parade was in 2019 with the GayGooners.

It was a truly memorable day of amazing sights, bright colours and an overwhelming feeling of acceptance.

Being able to think, say and feel, 'this is me', so openly and safely was truly liberating.

I cannot begin to thank the GayGooners and Arsenal enough for the real difference they have made in my life.

The picture below is one of my absolute favourites, I was driving the float and missed out on nearly all the pictures being taken, so when I had a few seconds, I took the chance to photobomb a picture!

It sums up my feelings on the day perfectly... Ta-Da!
Dave Raval, founding member of GayGooners and former Chair
When a handful of us founded the GayGooners in 2013, Arsenal was the first Premier League club to have an official LGBT supporters group.

Now, all Premier League clubs do, as do many clubs in other leagues, but ours is the largest (in the world!) with over 1,100 members.

When we started, homophobic and transphobic abuse was still commonplace at grounds and on social media, and sometimes we could feel like we were alone.

There is still abuse of course, but now 'straight allies' often call out the haters before we do - because together we are one Arsenal family and football is for everyone.

When we marched to celebrate being LGBT football fans at Pride, we were the first club represented.

Now, many clubs have their fans at Pride, which makes more and more people feel accepted as fans in the sport.
Victoria Sharkey, Campaigns Officer of GayGooners
In 2022 I will be attending my first ever Pride in London, and I am so proud to be a part of the GayGooners contingent for this important event.

Many think that there is already LGBTQI+ equality in this country and that Pride is just a chance to have some fun with our friends.

While I am looking forward to a really fun day I think it's important not to lose sight of the underlying meaning behind this and other Pride parades and celebrations that happen.

Within football fandom it is often still taboo to be out and in a same-sex relationship, and in recent months members of GayGooners have been abused and assaulted for a simple thing as wearing rainbow laces to a game, or holding their partner's hand.

For Trans and non-binary football fans it can still be incredibly risky to go to games as their authentic selves, and I doubt that a single one of our Trans or non-binary members hasn't faced abuse at a game at some point.

Several members won't come to games because of this.

It's up to all clubs to follow Arsenal's fantastic lead and create a safe space for people who just want to come and watch a match in peace.

It's up to fan groups like ours to show the world that it's ok to be Gay, Trans, Non-Binary, Pansexual, Queer, anywhere on the LGBTQI+ spectrum and love the game.

Bigots aren't going to stop us supporting our club, and hopefully seeing our presence will bring some LGBTQI+ fans back into football grounds, with the support of clubs and straight allies.

I hope this might even encourage more players to come out as Jake Daniels has at Blackpool.
Joe White, Co-Chair of GayGooners
Pride, as a month, is a concept about celebration and collectiveness - of where we have come from, where we are and where we want to be.

The support of the Arsenal family - from the club, fellow fans and the friends who make up the GayGooners - at Pride can never be understated. It always makes me proud to be a Gooner.

But what this club and family does so well is understanding that Pride may be a month, but our existence is every second of the day.

The challenges we face in society and in football do not end with the passing of June, and nor should our action.

We are making Arsenal for Everyone, every day - through allyship, through visibility and through thousands of GayGooners being their authentic selves whether Gay, Lesbian, Bi, Trans, Ace or Queer.

The fact that this club is proud of our Pride feels me with overwhelming joy and optimism in a relentlessly tough time for LGBT+ people, and especially Trans and gender diverse people like myself.

When we started, no professional male player had come out whilst playing in England this century. Now, one has, and hopefully Jake Daniels in Blackpool is the first of many.

There is still a long road ahead, remember how long it's taken to reduce racist and sexist abuse - you can't stop, and if you stand-still, you end up going backwards.

In fewer than ten years, huge strides have been made and I'd like to give thanks to all the fans and campaigners who have made this happen, and to the club and its staff for their support throughout this time.

The Arsenal family has led the way, and the football world is a better place for it.
Angus Moorat, committee member and member of Arsenal's Advisory Board
GayGooners is first and foremost a social club for Arsenal's LGBT+ fans.

Many in the UK and worldwide join us every year as a result of Pride, forming proper friendships at games home, away, in Europe and online.

I was a bit anxious when I went on my first Pride parade in 2014 but wanted to support Stewart (Selby) who created it all back in 2013.

The group has changed my life and I now have many brilliant Arsenal pals, straight and LGBT.

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Celebrating 10 Years of Pride with GayGooners

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Members of GayGooners share what Pride month means to them

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Lacasse: "I'm happy my chant is stuck in my head!"

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Cloe Lacasse was delighted with an "incredible night" at the King Power Stadium after we staged a second-half comeback against Leicester City in the Women's Super League.

"At half-time, we knew that we had to have this big second half," said Lacasse. "Once we had that first goal, momentum just swung our way and we were just able to really put in the back of the net."

"On this team, we just have so much talent right? From the starting XI to the bench, we have so much talent, so we knew that we could bring so much more in the second half.

"And once we got that first goal, the confidence just started to build and then we were able to put six away. So it's an incredible night for us to turn it around."

It was Lacasse who kickstarted our comeback with the first goal in the 49th minute. As Caitlin Foord switched the play with an insightful pass, our Canadian forward shrugged off the last Leicester defender with ease before slotting the ball past the keeper.

"I just think sometimes a goal doesn't have to be pretty, it doesn't have to be beautiful. Those gritty goals, they count so we'll take those gritty goals any day. I'm just glad I was able to contribute and help the team today and get that victory."

The incredible away support at the King Power was in full voice all evening as we turned the game around and the latest chant for Lacasse hasn't gone unnoticed or unappreciated.

"I've heard it, let me tell you! My Twitter has been exploding about the song. It's incredible, it's been stuck in my head as well. So thanks to the fans!

"I've felt at home here since I arrived and having that chant is just incredible. I'm happy to be here and I'm happy to have that chant stuck in my head."

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Lacasse: "I'm happy my chant is stuck in my head!"

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Our Canadian forward chats pitchside after our resounding 6-2 win away at Leicester

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"I'd like to tell you about something that means quite a lot to me. When it came to signing my contract extension with Arsenal back in 2022, I wanted the club to make a commitment to run an Arsenal in the Community programme in my name.

"It will come as no surprise to you that I played a lot of football growing up, but I also enjoyed exploring other things too. I'd spend hours sat with pens and paper doodling, dressing myself in mad fabrics at the textile workshops my mum hosted, and losing myself in the wood shavings my dad's furniture workshop had discarded. I look back with great fondness at my childhood, seeing now how much importance my parents put on growth through curiosity, freedom and exploration.

"Today I hold those same values at the forefront of my Arsenal in the Community programme, Time to Explore, a project that I'd like to share with you...

"When I signed my most recent Arsenal contract, the paperwork went through all the usual checks in football operations, but ultimately landed for final approval on the desk of the unassuming Freddie Hudson. I wanted a commitment included from the club to run a community project in my name for the duration of the contract. Freddie, head of Arsenal In the Community, was who we needed on board for this to have lift-off.

"Almost two years on, Time to Explore, my very own community programme, is in full flow. Built on providing 15 to 16-year-old girls the space to express themselves through football, the arts, and writing, we bring in guest lecturers and specialists to run workshops that introduce new and exciting subjects to the group. So far the programme participants have delved into sustainability, spoken word, poetry, sewing, backstitching, glazing, recording music and more, with each session perfectly rounded off on the football pitch, where artistic expression hits full fruition.

"The idea is for the girls to get stuck in, take themselves out of their comfort zone and see what puts a new and unexpected smile on their face.

"From the start of the programme, it was important for me that attendance was free - no strings attached. On top of that, all the girls involved were to be from Islington, Hackney or Camden, the main London Boroughs where Arsenal as a club is active. I liked the idea of it taking them only a handful of minutes on a Tuesday evening after school to walk to the Emirates, delve into the guts of the stadium, and find themselves at the doors of The Arsenal Hub ready for the session to commence.

"I wanted them to come somewhere I knew they'd be greeted by the smiles of Arsenal in the Community workers buzzing around, making them feel immediately at home, Arsenal fan or not.

"I try to join the girls for every session - I head to The Arsenal Hub straight from the training ground and arrive to the usual shower of questions: "Are you tired from training?" "Who's your best friend at Arsenal?" "What is Beth Mead like?" "Did you score today?" I respond back with, "Let's not speak about football today! Show me what kind of art we're doing instead!" After a few minutes of football chat, it then doesn't take much encouragement to dive into the workshop of the day. What a dream.

"I try to get involved in the workshops knowing I will soon find myself transported back to afternoons at the dinner table with a pen and paper. I think being able to share this common ground with the girls involved in the programme has helped me connect with them on a deeper level, with some more open to share their stories than others. I'll never forget being welcomed into the "what colour to paint my nails" and "which jeans to wear" conversation. Non-school uniform being a hot topic, of course.

"I don't feel so far removed from where these young girls are in their lives, albeit I'm 25. I still feel as if I am learning, exploring, and discovering new things about myself every day too. I've learned most about life with a ball at my feet but some of my greatest moments on the pitch have been thanks to what I have learned off the pitch.

"Watching these girls try new things, I've got to be honest and say that it's selfishly quite fulfilling for me! Whether they love it, whether they are good at it or not, it has opened their eyes to something in a new light and it's something that maybe they've never been exposed to before. I think that allows them to think in a different way and you can't underestimate the power of that.

"One young girl, Florence, has been introduced to the Arsenal Women's Academy since her involvement with Time to Explore after I spotted how skilful she was. Who knows, we may even have an artist, singer or footballer flourish from and beyond the programme in years to come.

"Being able to attend these sessions and see the work that we're doing is something that makes me incredibly proud. My life and passions have always extended beyond just football, and I'm extremely grateful to the club for being so understanding of who I am as a person and what's important to me, and for giving me the space to express myself - a space I am now trying to create for all the young girls who are part of my programme.

"I also want to give a special note of thanks to everyone who has been involved in making the programme happen - I was determined to do it, but I couldn't have done it on my own.

"Here's to more Time to Explore."

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Lotte Wubben-Moy on her passion for the community and her Time to Explore project for young girls